


Black Hole Philosophy

by StarvingLunatic



Series: Pariah [6]
Category: Kim Possible (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bisexual Female Character, Drama, F/F, Lesbian Character, Mixed Up Couples, Novella, Romance, Sexual Experimentation, Wordcount: 30.000-50.000, Wordcount: Over 30.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-02-09
Updated: 2007-03-10
Packaged: 2018-08-23 17:05:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 37,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8335552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarvingLunatic/pseuds/StarvingLunatic
Summary: An AU of my Pariahverse. Pretty much, the pairings have been reversed and Shin has a girlfriend. By the end of it, things should be in their proper order. Can it be done?





	1. Fancy Meeting You Here

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t own a lot of these characters; Disney does. I do own Trin, Shin, and Tatsu.
> 
> A/N: okay, the main idea behind this story is that it’s an AU of the Pariah-verse. Everything starts out almost the opposite of how it is in Pariah. It’s also dedicated to Chibi Izzum/ Voyeurism.

Black Hole Philosophy 

1: Fancy Meeting You Here

Trin sighed, hating that she decided to go to the bank now. It should have been empty, yet it seemed like everyone in the city decided at this very moment they needed to go to the bank. She would walk out of the chilly, stale smelling bank right now if she could. But, she could not, so she folded her arms across her chest and held in a groan as no one in the entire place moved… even the tellers from what she could tell.

She and her evil twin needed money for books and she certainly could not relay on him for such an important task. She could not even relay on him to hold onto a bankcard to avoid things like this. Shin would have made it to the bank and got the money, but by the time he got to the bookstore, he would be penniless and that was _if_ he made it to the bookstore. There was always the chance he would get so distracted by a bright light or a dancing monkey and he might never make it to the whole reason he went to the bank for in the first place. Just thinking about it made Trin sigh again. She massaged her pale forehead.

“If only I could trust the little rodent with the slightest bit of responsibility,” Trin muttered, resisting the urge to tap her leather covered foot against the white tile.

She had class in a half-hour, so she would really appreciate the line that she stuck in move sometime that century. It was not looking good, though. In fact, the guy ahead of her might actually be dead on his feet from how long he had been there and the kid with his parents might have been born in the line.

Looking at her, one would not think Trin had class, but then again, one probably would not know what to think looking at her. She wore a blush pink suit with a golden vest and canary yellow tie. She had matching pink low-cut boots. Shin had called the outfit “disturbing and disgusting” as he watched her leave the apartment that morning. He was throwing her words back at her from when she described most of his outfits.

Trin checked her watch, a gold men’s watch, just to see how long the line had been at a standstill. It felt like an eternity, but it was not even two minutes. But, two minutes was still way too long for a line to not move, especially with four tellers working at open windows. Did they have cobwebs on them? Maybe they were dead sitting down, which would explain why the line had not moved. It did not explain why the place was so crowded, though.

She could not believe so many people were in here on a weekday morning. She thought she was being slick by coming in mid-morning on a weekday when everyone should be at work, but obviously she was wrong. Even the tellers were not working today. _I guess no one works at ten a.m. anymore_.

And then, suddenly, something even more annoying happened. A hole was blown in the ceiling from the roof and a woman entered the bank threw the new portal. The woman had a flowing ebony mane and pale green skin. She smirked as she landed and a flame charged out of her hand like fire on a candle. She displayed the power proudly and from the outfit that she had on, Trin could guess what was going to happen. She groaned. _Oh, this just gets better and better. Do we really need books?_

“No way,” the blonde college student muttered, massaging the bridge of her nose. Her luck could not possibly be that bad, she told herself. _But, then again, my soul mate is a hopeless idiot who I can’t even trust to go to the bank, so yes, my luck has to be that bad_.

“Okay, nobody move and I won’t have to fry anybody. Just fill this bag with money quickly and everybody can be on their way,” the super-powered female announced while throwing duffle bag at the teller behind her.

Trin was actually surprised to see the teller move. She had assumed the woman was mannequin. _Damn, maybe I should’ve just robbed the bank if that’s what it takes to get them to move_. Of course, it was not too late to do something like that. She would have to do something. There was no way in hell she would be held up and also have to go to another branch of the bank on a day where it seemed like the only people working were criminals.

There was also the fact that she did not want to go through all of the questions from the police after this robbery. She had class, and, yes, being involved in a bank heist was probably one of the better reasons for missing classes, but she hated to miss class. So, it was decided as far as she was concerned. She stepped out of line.

-8-8-8-8-

Shego resisted the urge to groan and rub the middle of her forehead. She could not believe what she had been talked into doing by Drakken. Come on, bank robbing? How goddamn cliché was that? But, he required fast money for his latest problems, namely paying his henchmen. She would not have cared, if only she was not included in that lump of people who lacked a paycheck. She might have to start giving Drakken an allowance if he was going to blow check money on his nutty schemes.

But, then again, she would get a bonus for robbing the bank. A bonus would be nice. Of course, she could give herself bonuses if she had to steal any more money. Honestly, this would not be so bad if it was not so boring. It was not like the fat guard would pose much of a challenge should he decide to be a hero. And then, a customer stepped out of line. Apparently, someone other than the fat guard wanted to be the hero.

“Hey, I said don’t move,” Shego ordered, glaring at the young woman with the hope of scaring her back into line.

“Yeah, I have a listening problem,” the college student remarked in an odd monotone.

The blonde, nerdy-looking female down to the spectacles on her face surprised Shego, leaping at her and attacking. The villainess gasped as she dodged a very precise punch. A millisecond late on that move and Shego would have had a broken nose. Shego would have been incredulous to what just happened, if only she had the time.

Shego had to put her forearms up to block a kick from the blonde girl. Trin snorted slightly in disbelief that she could not land a blow. She lost the element of surprise now and she was very aware of that. She put her hands up as a counterattack came, which she was pleased did not include those green flames. She ducked as claw strike shot out at her and she took Shego’s legs out from under her.

The emerald-eyed thief grunted as she hit the deck, thigh slapping against the cold tile. She glared at her opponent. “You’re about to have more than a listening problem, blondie.”

Trin did not respond. Shego rolled out of the way as Trin tried to come down on her with her fists. She flipped up to her feet as Trin stopped just shy of bashing her fist against the floor.

“How about you to hold this for me?” Shego remarked as she flung a plasma sphere at Trin, which the blonde barely dodged.

The plasma impacted a wall behind her and blew a hole in the wall. Trin lost a few strands of golden hairs to the shot, but counted herself lucky. As she avoided the blast, Shego met her at the space she settled in. Trin threw her hands up to block the next assault.

“Hello, there,” Shego smirked as she went to work.

The college student found herself being defensive as Shego came at her stronger than before. She dipped and dodged as best she could, feeling a sting from Shego’s blows while waiting for the perfect moment to attack. She sought any little space for her to exploit, but Shego was tucked in tight. She might need to take a hit if something did not open up soon.

Trin noticed something she could take advantage of, having to take a little punishment from Shego. This allowed for an opening, which Trin went for it, punching Shego in the right side, her knuckles slamming into Shego’s ribs. Shego coughed when the blow landed, more stunned than pained, but now Trin came at her and she did not have time to be too shocked.

“Got a little sting in you, huh, you gay bumble bee,” Shego said, but still did not get a response from the blonde. Trin was not there for the sparkling conversation, after all.

Trin continued throwing hard, swift punches, which Shego tried to dodge or block. Shego flared her powers, hoping to get some room to breathe, but that barely backed up the little blonde firecracker. There was no fear in her teal-colored eyes and no hesitation in her moves. Shego was not sure what to make of this and found herself feeling foolish for thinking this would be boring. 

And then the sound of sirens going off distracted the green-skinned villainess from this bit of fun. Shego cursed under her breath and then flipped away from Trin as quickly as possible. She returned to the hole that she had blown into the ceiling.

“We’ll do this again, geek bait,” Shego said to the blonde before disappearing. 

Trin sucked her teeth in frustration, having gotten going in the fight and wishing for it to continue. She turned her eyes away from the hole and fixed her clothing. She then noticed she was right in front of a window and turned her attention to a teller. She fixed her glasses as she slid her withdrawal slip to the woman, who was in complete and utter shock as to what just happened between the customer and the would-be bank robber.

“Yes, so if you could just give me my five hundred dollars, I’ll be on my way,” Trin stated as if nothing happened.

The teller gave her what she assumed was a nod and accepted the slip. As the teller went to get the money for her, the police burst into the bank hollering, “Freeze!” to no one in particular. Trin groaned. Great, she would have to deal with questions from the police.

-8-8-8-8-

Tatsu was out of her element in this tiny place. She had come to one of the new coffee shops that opened up on a side of town she hardly visited. To be honest, she rarely left her shabby garage, except for “food” shopping and to see races on occasion to see her work in action. Food shopping for her consisted buying anything she only needed to add water to or could stick in a microwave. Other than that, she did not typically venture outside amongst the throngs of people, hating crowds… and people in general. And, boy, was this stupid, “trendy” spot crowded with people, like an infestation.

She came to the coffee shop because of the few female racecar drivers she knew swore to the high heavens she needed to try the place. She was not a big coffee drinker, but she did not have anything better to do with her time and she had been so bored in her garage with every car she had fixed and ready to run. So, she went to broaden her horizons, things like this were as far as she would ever go in doing something like “broadening her horizons.” Her boyfriend was always trying to tell her that she needed to try new things anyway. _What does he know, though?_

Her boyfriend was the type of guy who would come here and probably inhale, then wax on and on about the coffee smell. He would probably be able to tell how good the coffee was just from the aroma and separate each type, even though he did not really drink coffee either. He just seemed to know a lot of things about a lot of things.

She could care less about how good the coffee was or what kind it was. She struggled not to deck the next person to accidentally bump into her. Sure, the place was tiny and crowded, but did everyone have to lead with their elbows?

She brought a cup, believing the coffee was damned expensive and she probably never return to this wretched place again. As she was leaving, two teens entered the door, speaking to each other. The pair did not seem to be paying attention and that would explain why the girl amongst the two ran right into Tatsu.

“Ah, damn,” the ebony-haired mechanic muttered to herself as the cup in her hand was knocked against her chest. She was instantly covered in her drink. Thankfully, she was in her coveralls, not that any of her clothing was so glamorous that she would care if it was stained.

“Oh, my god! I’m so sorry!” Kim screeched as she realized she had just caused the person she ran into to spill her coffee on herself. From the volume that Kim screamed, it was clear she thought the coffee scolding hot, too.

“It’s okay,” Tatsu murmured, looking down at her now filthy dark blue jumpsuit. This was her last clean jumpsuit, she remembered. Great, now she would have to do laundry, which was almost as annoying as coming to get coffee.

“Are you okay?” Kim begged with wide, pleading green eyes. She held her hands up, as if wanting to do something, but scared to touch Tatsu.

“Fine. It was cold,” the mechanic answered. She had gotten an iced coffee, not wanting to wait for it to cool off.

Kim breathed a sigh of relief so deeply that her shoulders slumped. She was glad to know she had not horrible burned someone. But, she now felt guilty. She had caused the woman to spill her coffee, after all. Not just spill it, but get it all over herself. 

“Let me buy you a new one,” Kim offered with a bright smile.

Ron stood off to the side, watching this whole thing unfold. He was quite busy being scared out of his wits, realizing just who his best friend had spilled the beverage on. He could not even speak, just stare with huge, horrified brown eyes and a gaping mouth.

“That’s all right,” Tatsu replied in her typical mumbled speech. She waved the whole thing off.

“No, no, no! Let me,” Kim insisted.

Tatsu shook her head. “No thanks.” She started toward the door, which was barely a foot away, wanting to make a clean escape.

“Please, let me!” the redheaded hero implored her and she grabbed Tatsu by the arm.

Ron gulped as Tatsu turned around slightly, looking at Kim from the corner of her eyes. The look Tatsu gave his best friend was borderline arctic in temperature, which was definitely helped by the color of her eyes. Kim seemed unfazed by the expression in the ice blue eyes.

“K. P, maybe you should let it go,” Ron suggested, trying to whisper through gritted teeth. Rufus popped out of his pocket and nodded in agreement.

“No, no, no. I made a mistake and I’d like to make up for it,” the adventurer explained.

“It’s all right. I didn’t want it anyway.” Tatsu pulled her limb back to her. What she really wanted was to get out of this den of all that she hated.

Kim seemed rather dejected by that, pouting even, and Tatsu took the brief moment of inaction to walk out of the place. Kim sucked her teeth and frowned. She had really desired to make up for her clumsiness. Ron breathed a sigh of relief and put his hand on his heart. 

“Wow, Kim, that was close,” Ron commented.

“What was close?” Kim asked with an arched eyebrow, but squinting a little.

“That.” He pointed to the door and then to Kim. “Don’t you know who that was?” he inquired.

Kim’s forehead wrinkled as her eyebrows curled up. “No. Who was that?”

“What the? That was Tatsu,” he informed her, but Kim’s blank expression let him know that she still had no clue what he was talking about. “Tatsu, the serpent. You know,” he said.

“No, I don’t know. So, are you going to tell me?” Kim inquired.

Ron threw his hands out with his usual dramatic flare and almost hit someone in the process. It earned him a wicked glare that he did not even notice. “Oh, come on! She’s like a gangster or something. She’s involved in those street races that you hear so much about. I hear she even kills people.”

Kim twisted up her mouth and looked quite skeptical. “Where do you hear these things?” she asked him. He always knew the most bizarre things, in her opinion anyway.

“Around,” he answered with a shrug. Sometimes, he did not even know where he got his information. Kim smiled at him and shook her head in an amused way. Tatsu was pretty soft-spoken and understanding for a gangster, but she did not say that to Ron. Why clutter up his mind with the truth, after all?

-*-(New day)-*-

Trin rubbed her eyes as she exited her night class. That bastard Shin had left early without telling her why, but she suspected it had something to do with him wanting a new video game that just came out. She did not see why he did not ditch their morning or afternoon classes, but then again, she did not understand why he felt it necessary to play video games either. She liked to think that at nineteen they had both grown up some, but she was pretty sure everyone who knew them would disagree.

It was dark, but that did not bother Trin. The campus looked bleak with barren trees bent crooked by shadows. It seemed deserted, even with the bright streetlights on, illuminating the narrow sidewalks. A cold breeze blew, pushing around trash and dust on the street, attempting to chill her. She shrugged it off. She started the walk to her car and then stopped along the way as she caught sight of a familiar figure standing under a streetlight, leaning against the post.

“I hope you didn’t travel all this way for your ass-kicking to continue,” Trin commented. It was Shego underneath the light, looking rather smug in the blonde’s opinion. She could not fathom why. It was not like Trin had lost their fight.

“I came all this way to continue your ass-kicking,” Shego replied with a smirk firmly in place. There was no way in hell that would allow some prissy-looking bimbo get the better of her in a fight.

“You don’t want to fight me,” Trin stated. She now supposed it was good thing the cops came when they did and chased the robber off. She could end up in a lot of trouble beating the thief the way she typically did to those who antagonized her and her little sister was not around to stop her.

Shego stood her proper height and locked eyes with Trin. “No, I think I do. So, put the bag down and let’s get to it.” She made a show of cracking her knuckles.

“You don’t want to do this.”

“What, you scared?” Shego inquired, smirking again.

The blonde dropped her shoulder bag to the dirt and put her hands up. She knew she should not do it, but ever since the fight at the bank, she had desired to face the thief again. She was no fool. She knew who the woman was, beyond just someone who fought her little sister, and that just made her want to battle with Shego even more.

The green-skinned woman chuckled darkly. She did not know as much about her opponent as Trin knew about her. She just knew a blonde student named Trin Possible had embarrassed her in a bank and delayed her paycheck. She knew she wanted revenge and she was certain she would get just what she wanted.

“You have time to leave, you know,” Trin offered, knowing Shego could never, would never accept that.

Shego scoffed. “You still have time to burst into tears and beg my forgiveness.”

“I can’t even begin to describe to you how unlikely that is.”

“Then, I guess it’s settled.”

Yes, it certainly was. The pair both got into their fighting stances, obviously not caring as to the fact that they were about to battle on a university campus. All they wanted to do was go at each other again and so they did. They fought even harder than when they were at the bank. They both knew what the other was capable and wanted to top the other.

Trin frowned while fighting with Shego. At the bank, it had not registered to her who she dealt with exactly, but now, she knew. She was fighting with a woman who tormented her little sister almost on a weekly basis. The thought of someone hurting her little sister over and over again bothered her, of course. It bothered her a lot and she wanted to punish Shego for this.

The blonde hated seeing people mess with her little sister. Back when they were younger, people used to pick on Kim just for being her sister. People used to torture her sibling just for being related to Trin. Kids used to try to beat her sister up and having endured more than enough beatings in her own childhood, she never wanted her sister to go through the same, so she used to wail on people who touched her sister in harmful manner. She had plans to do that to Shego.

Trin landed the first significant blow, which was Shego’s unknown penance for ever touching Kim. A crack echoed through the night as Trin’s fist connected with Shego’s cheek. Shego almost saw stars and fell back briefly, but bounced back immediately, snarling as she swiped at Trin. This move backed Trin up a little, but Shego was in her face as soon as she steadied her footing.

The green-skinned female was shocked by the power Trin used to came at her. She did not think a girl who looked like Trin, like some preppy, glamour girl that a unicorn threw up on, should pack such a punch. It did not matter, though. She met Trin’s force with her own, silently noting something odd about the blonde’s style. Trin reminded her of Kim, but more like a demon version of Kim.

The way Trin moved was similar to Kim, Shego thought. Even the combinations she went with seemed like that of the little goody-goody. Since she knew Trin’s last name was also Possible, she wondered if there was any relation, even though she could not imagine someone who fought like a devil being related to an angel like Kim.

“Why don’t you just give up?” Shego grunted as she slammed her foot against Trin’s side.

Trin trapped Shego’s leg at her side, but still skidded across the cement walkway. Her shoes were undoubtedly ruined. “Why give up when you’ve already lost?” Trin shoved Shego away from her.

Shego scoffed. “Not to a little nerd like you!” She flung a plasma ball, just enough to throw her opponent off balance. Trin barely dodged it and Shego was back in her face, knuckles on her cheek. Trin took it and shoved her knee right into Shego’s chest.

The pair danced with each other like two fire-breathing dragons, complete with fire on Shego’s end. They landed blows that would have knocked out weaker beings easily and yet they kept coming. They were both in disbelief as the fight progressed and neither of them fell to the other quickly, or even slowly. They both fought until they could not fight anymore.

They did not say anything, just backing away from each other as they had enough. _Amazing_ floated through both of their minds as something buzzed in their blood. Still, they never took their eyes off of the other until they were both out of sight.

-*-(New day)-*-

Kim strolled around outside with a pile of books in her hands. She tried to keep a good hold on them, but it was always difficult to do so with a stack that blocked her vision. She had taken them out of the library because she had a huge project that was due and she needed to get to it while she had the time. She turned a corner and felt herself run into something she could not see. The something grunted on impact and the sound of things falling, which were her books and something else, filled the air.

“Sorry,” Kim said before she got a good look at whom she hit and then she looked up. “You again,” she squeaked as she noticed she had bumped into Tatsu once more. “I am so sorry!” This woman might think Kim was doing this on purpose at this point. 

“It’s all right,” Tatsu mumbled as she looked down at what was going to be her dinner. She had gone out for fast food and brought pizza, just a couple of slices. The slices were on the concrete, as was the soda that she had been drinking. She should have been paying more attention rather than trying to eat and walk. “Sorry about your books,” she added when she saw that some of the books had landed in her spilled drink.

“It’s cool,” Kim answered as she leaned down and started to pick her books up. 

Tatsu bent down to help, even though she considered just walking away. It was not her fault the redheaded teen was clumsy, she told herself. But, she did not listen to that voice in her head and she picked up half of the books, holding onto them while Kim had the other books.

“Thanks,” Kim said and she waited for Tatsu to pile the other books on her stack. 

Tatsu looked around as she secured the books in her arms. “Where you going?”

“Huh?” An orange eyebrow raised.

“I’ll carry these,” Tatsu stated and she thought that might seem weird, so she guessed she should explain why. “So, you don’t hit anyone else.”

A broad, bright smile spread across Kim’s face. “Oh. Okay, thanks.” If Tatsu was a gangster then she was just about the sweetest thug Kim had ever met. “But, if you help me, you have to let me make up for dropping your stuff again.”

Tatsu sighed, but she agreed to that. She was still hungry, after all. She just hoped Kim making things up to her did not involve anything over the top, or a lot of mindless small talk. They started walking and that was when Kim thought to introduce herself. 

“I’m Kim,” the younger female said.

“Tatsu,” the mechanic sort of grunted out. 

Kim nodded for lack of a better thing to do. They walked to her house, which was a few minutes away. Tatsu did not seem bothered by the stack of books, even after holding them for so long, but was quick to drop them when she could. Kim sighed as she put her books down.

“Okay, so now to the pizza shop,” Kim announced. “I’ll buy you a makeup slice for the two I dropped, okay?” 

Tatsu scratched her head. “One slice or three?” The math of generosity escaped her right now.

Kim grinned. “Three. You seem like you can put away three slices.”

Tatsu accepted because she really wanted some pizza. She definitely could eat three and carrying those books had only served to make her hungrier. Kim did not stick around if Tatsu was not going to agree anyway. She was already down the walkway by the time the mechanic realized what was going on and she had to jog to catch up.

They did not really talk through out the walk, which Tatsu was quite thankful for. Kim kept looking at Tatsu rather curiously. It was not something Tatsu was unfamiliar with, but she could tell it was not the same kind of staring she got from so many people who did not know her. Kim was not wary of her or anything. It was kind of nice, she thought and then she shook that notion away. 

“Thanks,” Tatsu commented once the pizza was purchased. Kim also replaced her soda, but she decided not to drink it until she was home.

“No problem. It’s the least I could do,” Kim replied with another smile. 

“Take care,” Tatsu said as a farewell.

“Okay. I hope I see run into you again… well, not literally again,” the redhead said with a sheepish smile on her face.

Tatsu shrugged as a response. Maybe they would run into each other again. She did not think she would mind that. Kim seemed like a nice girl and she would not mind being around her for a few minutes, which was more time than she was willing to spend with most people. Hell, she even hated being around her boyfriend after a few minutes.

-8-8-8-8- 

Next time: Kim and Tatsu become friends while Shin and Trin talk about relationships. Shego and Trin also build up a routine.


	2. Getting in the Door

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own these characters, except for Trin, Shin, and Tatsu. The others belong to Disney.

2: Getting in the Door

Kim had run into Tatsu quite a few times after those first couple of incidents. Some of those times, it actually was not even literal, much to Kim’s relief. It was odd in both of their opinions. They had lived in Middleton all of their lives and had not seen each other in the sixteen years Kim had been alive, but suddenly in a few weeks they had crossed paths over a dozen times. 

“This has to be fate,” Kim grinned as she stopped short on the sidewalk to avoid plowing into Tatsu as she exited a convenient store.

Tatsu only shrugged while trying to get away. Kim blocked her path, knowing Tatsu wanted to escape. Kim could not understand why, though.

“How come you’re always trying to run away from me?” Kim asked. “You got some place to be?”

Tatsu shook her head. “Nah.”

“Just don’t like people?” Kim knew some very much the same.

Tatsu shrugged, but it was good confirmation. Kim knew just because someone did not like people did not mean they did not get lonely, though. Kim wondered if no one wanted to be around Tatsu because of all of the rumors. If people were anything like Ron, then they believed every bad thing they heard about Tatsu.

“Not all people are horrible, you know?” Kim walked off with Tatsu. Tatsu only shrugged. This was enough for Kim to confirm.

-8-8-8-8-

The redhead took it upon herself to be Tatsu’s friend since she noticed no one was ever with the mechanic. Tatsu did not put up any active resistance, but she did not change the way she acted, which usually scared people away, but not Kim. Tatsu reminded her of two other nineteen-year-olds she knew. Kim stayed around Tatsu and eventually the mechanic just accepted her presence, but she still did not change her demeanor.

Kim usually hung around Tatsu when Ron was “busy.” He considered playing video games busy while Kim considered it a waste of time. Ron was uncomfortable around Tatsu and that was rather clear. He said something about how the blue-eyed female was just creepy and he thought it had something to do with her eyes actually. He had never seen such ice blue eyes and he thought when she looked at him, she could see into his soul… and possibly set it on fire. It just chilled him to the core of his being. He was not alone in that, which was another feature of Tatsu’s that kept people away from her.

It was actually a good thing that Kim hung around Tatsu without Ron. Having two people around her would have bothered Tatsu to the point where she would have made a serious effort to get them away from her after a few minutes. She just was not that social, which Kim noticed. So, it was possible that no one being around her also stemmed from her not finding someone she could tolerate long enough.

“So, what do you say we go to a movie?” Kim suggested while walking with Tatsu. She ran into the mechanic at another convenient store and helped Tatsu buy some healthier food than the older teen usually would.

Kim imagined Tatsu ate more instant noodles than anyone’s blood pressure could agree with. Eventually, she would also try to get Tatsu to stop grocery shopping at a convenient store. She just knew it would take small steps.

“Now?” Tatsu inquired, scrunching up her face, causing her brow to wrinkle in confusion. She had to adjust one of the plastic bags in her hand.

Kim nodded, holding a bag as well, as she needed to help with any and everything. “Yeah, now. I’m free. Do you have anything you need to do?”

Tatsu thought about it. She had cars waiting, but she could always get to them later on. It was not like she had a full social life or anything. Did she really want to go to the movies? She supposed it would be all right. She had gone to the movies a couple of times with her boyfriend on the few occasions he actually came back to town to spend time with her. If she could go out with him and not murder him with extreme prejudice, then she figured she could easily stand being with Kim for a little while.

“I’m good. We can go,” Tatsu answered with a shrug. Maybe Kim would want to see something good. Maybe Kim would help her broaden her horizons, like she did with grocery shopping, even though she was not sure if Chef Boyardee was so much healthier than instant noodles. It would be nice to have some spaghetti, even if it was from a can.

“That’s great. There’s a new movie out that I’ve been dying to see,” Kim stated. She knew better than to try to drag Ron to the movie and Monique had been busy for the past week with working extra shifts.

The mechanic did not argue with Kim. She figured it would be more energy than she was willing to part with to ever argue with Kim. The girl seemed so strong-willed and determined to be her friend, finding her almost any time she left her garage. Besides, she had quietly noted a while ago that being around Kim was not totally unpleasant, even though she was still getting used to the company. Being around Kim was better than being around her boyfriend and he was her boyfriend.

So, she went to the movies with Kim after dumping off her “groceries” at her garage; potato chips, donuts, a bag of baby carrots, and several cans of manufactured pasta could count as groceries to her. Tatsu brought the tickets. She was not sure why she had not let Kim pay, but she would not have thought about it if Kim had not protested when she pulled out money. Tatsu let the hero object, but she still gave up the money in her pocket when time came to pay for the tickets. The ticket taker looked at them like they were weird, but Tatsu ignored him.

“You didn’t have to do that,” the redhead pointed out with a slight frown.

“I know,” Tatsu answered, walking off. She knew Kim would follow her.

“So, why did you?” Kim asked with an arched eyebrow, almost as if she could not understand why anyone would pay for her. Her parents barely paid for her with things now. Her big sister was the only one who threw money around for her.

Tatsu shrugged. “I felt like it.” Was that a crime? 

Kim let it go, knowing if she persisted, it would get on Tatsu’s nerves and she might just walk out of the theater. It was a wise move on Kim’s part, which Tatsu respected. It seemed like Kim learned a lot about Tatsu already, even though she did not think there was much to learn. Tatsu was easy enough to read in Kim’s opinion. All she had to do was make sure not to push anything too much and remain friendly without overdoing it while talking to the older female and everything seemed to go well.

The movie was a romantic-comedy. Tatsu did not imagine herself as a romantic or a comedian, so she did not enjoy the movie much until she glanced over at Kim. She saw Kim found the movie entertaining, laughing at some points or just looking enthralled at other moments in the feature. Kim’s reaction seemed to make going to the movie worth it to the mechanic.

Tatsu thought that was weird. Being around someone who was enjoying herself did not usually affect her like this. She supposed it was her subconscious forcing her to make an effort like the hero was making an effort to be her friend, making an effort to understand her. The redhead was being nice to her and seemed to enjoy being around her. She would like to return that for some reason that was beyond her. She had never felt like this before. She considered she might understand why if she just continued to be around Kim for a while.

Glancing at the redhead, who was laughing again, Tatsu found she definitely would not mind spending more time around Kim. Even if it meant more romantic-comedies. _If this is all it takes for me to like someone, how wasn’t I kidnapped as a kid?_ Tatsu could guess why and decided to just focus on Kim instead of asking herself things that might actually depress her. 

-8-8-8-8-

Trin sat tucked in a comfortable armchair by the window in her shared apartment with Shin, reading one of her favorite science journals with the sun warming her face. Her best friend was in the living room, playing a video game for lack of a better thing to do. At least he was quiet. Of course, if he was not, she promised to poison his food later on and this was not an idle threat with her.

“You know you could just help me,” he called over to her.

“And you could continue to sit there, not annoying me,” she replied.

“You know I’ve survived your poisonings before.”

“Yes, but we both know I’m not below giving you something you’ll live through, but wished you would die as you live through it.”

He could not call her a liar there and decided not to whine like he usually would. He had pestered Trin earlier about helping him make the life of a professor a living hell. He did not particularly care for the professor, believing the man to be a racist. For once, Trin did not think he was jumping to crazy conclusions, having said in the class and heard the professor interact with several students. Shin was not one of them, but he thought this was justice. She had opted on not helping him at the moment, mostly because he did not need her help. This caused him to give up and retreat into his digital world of make believe. He was basically throwing a tantrum and she refused to respond.

Shin was surprised by Trin declining and also that she managed to ignore his tantrum. Typically, he could annoy her into doing what he wanted. Yeah, she might be violent while doing it, but she would still do it.

He noticed his roommate was acting strangely and had been for nearly a month. Usually, she would have been all for teaching a bigot a lesson or two, but now she seemed distracted. Even when she was working, sometimes she would zone out, lost in her own thoughts for a few moments. He did not like that. It meant someone else was getting her attention, someone who was not him, which was not cool. He liked it when she focused on him and, typically, he did not have to share her unless her siblings were around. He figured he should voice his theory as to why she seemed so distracted now.

“So, who’s your new girlfriend?” Shin inquired without bothering to take his eyes off of his game. He sounded as if it was nothing, as he always tried to make things out to be, even though Trin having someone take up time that should be his was something to him.

“Excuse me?” Trin countered in her usual tone. She did not take her eyes off of her book.

“Who’s your new girlfriend?” he repeated in an even more deliberate tone. He guessed she had a girlfriend because in the past, the few girls she had who could be considered girlfriends took up her time, even though he thought her idea of being a girlfriend was weird.

Trin had had a few girlfriends in her life since she hit puberty and was certain she was a lesbian. She was not the most social being, even though she was pretty and intelligent, so she did not mingle enough to have a girlfriend constantly. She also had a deep hatred of touching, kissing especially, which made it hard for her to maintain a physical relationship, which never included sex. In fact, the idea of sex seemed utterly disgusting to Trin. She could not even watch love scenes in a movie without turning away.

“I don’t have a girlfriend,” Trin with a sneer, not even bothering to look at him, but she knew he would get it from her tone alone. It was as if she was calling her best friend an idiot for even suggesting such a thing.

“What do you mean you don’t have a new girlfriend?” he scoffed. That did not make any sense to him. She had to have a new girlfriend. That was the only way to explain her behavior, especially the fact that she was not helping him get at the racist professor.

Curling her lip, she glanced over at him. “Why are you even worrying about me having a girlfriend? Don’t you think you should focus on your girlfriend? I mean, when was the last time you even called her?”

The ebony-haired young man conceded that point. He had no idea when was the last time he called his girlfriend. She was hard to talk to on the phone, so he rarely made the attempt. She was the kind of girl that he needed to see if he was going to be in contact with her. Hell, even then, it was hard to interact with her. Most of the time, she did not seem thrilled to be with him.

“You’re a horrible boyfriend. I don’t see why she puts up with you,” Trin commented and she meant that.

“Because I’m damn cute,” he replied with a confident, arrogant smirk. He then made a show of flipping his hair.

“I’ve seen cuter,” she teased him, focusing on her book and not looking at him. 

He made a show of scoffing loudly. “Like you even look at guys, you damn dyke.”

“Ouch,” she said dryly. “One day you might actually shock me and say something witty,” she quipped. 

“Hopefully, you’ll then die of shock.”

“Then, you’ll die of starvation,” she reminded him.

Shin snorted. “That’s what pizza is for.” He scratched the top of his head, mussing his onyx colored hair. “I guess I should call her, though. See what she’s up too or something like that. It’s been a while,” he yielded. Such a while, he could not recall the last time he spoke to his girlfriend.

With a light scoff, Trin rolled her eyes. She truly thought he was a very neglectful boyfriend. She did not see why his girlfriend stayed with him, why any girl stayed with him. He picked up girls by being totally confident in himself, but then he did not do anything with them. He hardly paid attention to his girlfriends when they went out. When he dropped them home, it was out of sight, out of mind with him. He did not even treat them like girlfriends from what she could tell. He treated them like friends, but maybe that appealed to them. Not that she could understand why.

Shin grabbed his mobile phone from the coffee table. “Hey, lover, what you up to?” he asked his girlfriend once she answered the phone.

Trin glanced at him. This was something else she found odd. He did not grin or even smile as he made the call. It was not like that with just this girlfriend. It was like this with every girlfriend, like a phone call was an obligation rather than something fun.

“Nothing,” Tatsu answered in a mumble over the phone.

“You’re never up to anything, Tatsu,” he commented with a bit of a chuckle. “You miss me?” he inquired in an almost teasing tone, like it was obvious she missed him because he was, well, him.

Trin rolled her eyes again in the background. She had never met Shin’s current girlfriend. All she knew was he met her at street race back in their hometown. She thought that out of all his girlfriends, Shin treated Tatsu the worst, but she seemed to return the favor.

Most of the time, Shin never wanted to drive out to see her and Tatsu seemed to be of like mind in that. She never came to the apartment or even to their town. He hardly called Tatsu and she never called either. Their phone conversations were typically quick and Tatsu never seemed to want to talk to Shin, but Trin did not think too much of it. _I hardly want to talk to him and he’s my evil twin_.

Shin and Tatsu were still together, so they had to be doing something that worked for them, Trin figured anyway. Things worked for the couple mostly because neither of them really seemed to be trying. Sometimes, Trin considered they were both too lazy to break up with each other, but other times, she thought they really got along better than Shin did with any of his girlfriends. Maybe Tatsu had zero expectations and Shin could easily meet those standards.

When Shin was with Tatsu, he could get her talking, but it took some effort, which he did not really mind. It had to be about a race where she worked on the cars that were competing. Sometimes, he could get her to talk about cars point blank, which he actually did not know much on, but he could compare her knowledge with other knowledge he held. He liked that about Tatsu, which was one of the reasons why he would not break up with her, even though to the untrained eye (and trained eye with Trin) their relationship seemed to be stale.

Trin actually thought the couple seemed more like friends than anything else from what she knew about them. When they were in Middleton and she was out with her sister, Shin took that time to go hang out with Tatsu. He did not seem to take her on what Trin would consider dates, but she guessed that as long as couple was together, where they went was a date. Of course, she was far from a relationship expert, so she figured maybe she should stop judging them.

While Shin was on the phone with Tatsu, talking about an engine Tatsu was currently working on, Trin thought about what Shin said earlier. He seemed to be under the impression she had a girlfriend. Usually, when he made guesses like that, he was right on the money, but he was way off at the moment, in her high and mighty opinion anyway. The only female she had spent time around was Shego, who seemed to show up every few nights when she was alone and they would battle. This was more fulfilling than anything she could do with a girlfriend, especially since it involved one of the only forms of touching she could stand.

Shego seemed to be stalking her, but Trin did not mind. She liked when Shego showed up and they could take each other on. The best part was the more they fought, the less she wondered about her demons coming out and something going terribly wrong. Even if her demons came out, she considered Shego would give her a run for her money, maybe even stop her. She could freely fight Shego.

Their fighting now seemed to be more like heavy sparring, which was something she did with Shin. They were certainly looking to injure each other, to prove who was superior, but not to the point where the other would unable to function during the next fight. They exchanged banter while fighting, but it was nothing to be considered deep or as if they were girlfriends.

Yes, Shego was an attractive woman and Trin silently admitted that her knowing how to fight only added to it. Trin also was starting to believe that Shego was just as much of a lesbian as she was, but she did not have the best “gaydar” on the planet. Besides, she was not looking for a girlfriend at the moment, not like Shego anyway; or so that was what she told herself. She did not even like Shego.

Shego was annoying to the point where Trin would like to staple her lips together to keep her from opening her mouth. She doubted they could build a relationship off of something like that. _Oh, yeah? You haven’t killed Shin yet and he talks when we’re under water!_

Then there was the fact that Shego seemed to like bodily contact, getting a kick out of pinning Trin when she could and rubbing up against her. Actually, these actions helped the blonde conclude Shego was lesbian, along with some very inappropriate innuendo and open leering. Trin was not comfortable with touching outside of fighting, especially by people who were not her family. She considered Shego might just do such things to be a pest, quietly noting how tense Trin became when she did brush up against the blonde in a naughty manner. It could just be a tactic to try to win one of their contests.

And then there was the major factor, which was that Shego was her sister’s arch foe. It was far from cute to date her little sister’s enemy, she thought. Hell, it was not even good to have whatever the hell they had at the moment. She had threatened to kill Shego if something terrible happened to her little sister. Shego had only laughed at the time; she had been easing up on Kim ever since she met Trin.

“That went pretty good. I guess you were right about calling her,” Shin said, putting his phone down. He was done, even though that was hardly five minutes worth of phone call.

“I was what not?” Trin smirked and arched an eyebrow.

He scoffed. “To hell with you, shrew.” He turned his attention back to his video game. She just her eyes at him and then went back to reading. It was a good way to get out of her head and stop thinking about Shego.

-*-(New day)-*-

Shego waited for Trin to come out of a building on her university campus. Night had settled in, giving the campus a creepy, horror movie vibe. _It’s actually a pretty good setting for us_. Now, where was Trin, so they could make good use of this scenery?

As far as Shego knew, the blonde had to go speak with a professor, which was why she would be alone. Shego had actually developed some hatred for the boy who was always around Trin, namely Shin. He was like a parasite, attached to Trin, going everywhere she went, doing everything she did.

Shego wanted Trin to herself, so they could do their thing for as long as she wanted and Shin made that hard by constantly being around Trin. Shego knew she could probably easily get him out of the way, but she doubted Trin would like her methods. She had little desire to do anything that might seriously make Trin not want to be around her, so she left the little pest, Shin, alone and resented the time he had with Trin. The green-skinned woman, of course, found many opportunities to pounce on the blonde when she was alone, though.

She wanted Trin alone for the simple fact that she did not want anyone to interfere with their fighting, or so she told herself anyway. She liked battling Trin, but not for the sake of fighting. She looked forward to soundly beating the blonde eventually, but mostly she liked taunting and teasing Trin. It was amusing, especially since Trin had comebacks, which were usually missing when she had something to say to other people.

She could see glimpses of Trin in Kim, now that she knew they were sisters. But, Kim was like the censored version. Shego found she was more fascinated with the Possible without the filter, but in her verbal wit and her physical prowess. Trin did not hold back, Trin did not worry about hurting her, and Trin seemed to lack any conscience, which Shego believed she respected.

Groaning, Shego checked the time. “Where the hell is she?” She did not have all night. Okay, well, no, she did, but she wanted to spend that time doing something.

She wondered what was taking Trin so long after a few more minutes passed. How long could it take to sort a matter out with a professor? She desired to check on the blonde, wanting to make sure that nothing was going on. But, as soon as she was willing to go in, Trin exited the building.

“Where the hell have you been, Possible?” Shego inquired, stepping out of the shadows next to the student. She probably would have surprised anyone else by seemingly just appearing by their side, but Trin did not even finch. 

“What’s it to you?” Trin countered with an arched eyebrow.

“Nothing, except you’re screwing around on my time,” the older female stated, as if she was serious.

Trin’s lip ticked up briefly, almost like she was amused. “When did it become your time?”

“When you became my bitch,” Shego remarked with a proud grin. “My name is tattooed on your ass,” she added and then she groped the aforementioned area. _Oh, that feels very nice_ , the villainess noted in the back of her mind. She might have to do that more often.

Trin yelped, which was unlike her, but she was very surprised by the move. She swatted at Shego to get the thief away from her, which worked. Shego noticed not too long ago that grabbing Trin in a personal area truly got to the blonde, so she groped her every now and then to be annoying. Well, Shego did it to be annoying and to touch a hot chick. Yeah, she was into girls.

Shego got a little thrill from touching Trin, mostly because she knew it irked Trin. But, she had never gone so far as to actually clutch Trin’s behind. She was definitely going to start grabbing that ass more often, she told herself, especially if it made Trin squeal. She would never run out of material to make fun of Trin with thanks to that sound alone. 

“Don’t do that,” Trin huffed, glaring at Shego.

“Why not?” Shego asked and she did it again. That ass just called her now and that reaction would never get old. 

“Ah!” Trin screamed in frustration, moving away and growling at Shego. Taking a breath, she calmed herself down, not wanting Shego to get to her. She knew Shego thrived on getting to her. Getting angry was like giving sunlight to a plant. “You keep doing that and I’m going to think you want to be my friend,” she remarked with a taunting half-smirk.

“Like hell I do. Who in their right mind would want to be your friend?” Shego scoffed, folding her arms across her chest.

“Who said you were in your right mind? Look at what you do for a living,” the younger female riposted.

Shaking her head, Shego chuckled a bit. “Such a smart ass.”

“That’s my line.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, let’s get to it,” the emerald-eyed female stated. They had a good time teasing each other, but now, she wanted to get to the fighting.

“I’d like to, but I have a couple of papers to get to,” Trin answered.

“Papers?” Shego groaned. She now hated college. It was cutting into her fun.

“Yeah, I’ve got English papers.”

“What about that guy you’re always with? Can’t he do them?” Shego inquired. 

“Shin is handling the history papers,” Trin explained. She hoped he got to those soon, too. He worried her with the way that he did things. He always waited until the last minute while she was more interested in doing things as soon as possible to get them out of the way.

Shego rolled her eyes. “So, how long is this going to take?” she asked with a frown mixed with a pout.

Trin shrugged a little. “I don’t know, but I don’t have a free night to play around with you. Why don’t you go keep an eye on your boss and make sure he doesn’t kill himself or something for a while?”

Shego waved that idea off, having little desire to be around Drakken in her spare time. Lately, he was making it hard to be around him during work. “Nah, I think I’ll stick around and bug you.”

“Trust me, once I get home, the only thing in creation that can bug me is a half-Japanese psychopath that I’m going to have to kill one day,” Trin remarked.

“Doesn’t he ever go outside?” Shego wondered out loud. God, what kind of man was always underneath a woman that was not even his girlfriend?

“Why? You act like I would let you in my apartment anyway.”

“Like I would need your damn permission.”

Trin just rolled her eyes. She hoped Shego was not planning to follow her home. She and Shin had never actually discussed having company over the apartment. They did not really have friends, save each other, so they did not have to worry. Shin never seemed to be so serious with a girlfriend to feel the urge to bring her over and Trin tried to never have a girlfriend near by so the question of coming over would never come up. If Shego was serious about coming over to the apartment, even if not right at that moment, it could pose a problem at some point in the near future. Trin wondered what she had gotten herself into while Shego wondered what would happen if she happened to stop by the apartment sometime soon.

-8-8-8-8-

Next time: Shego in Trin’s room; Shin at a club thinking about his sexuality; Kim requests that she and Tatsu become a couple.


	3. What Are We?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own these characters, except Trin, Shin, and Tatsu. Disney owns all the rest.

3: What Are We? 

Trin was in her room with her laptop in front of her, sitting on her bed. She had long ago decided she hated any and all required courses outside of the ones in her majors. They just took up so much of her time; any time was too much in her opinion because she could be doing other things. She wished she and Shin had decided on a different way to split the work that term, but they were trying to be equal this time. _Never again_ , she silently decided. 

A light tap distracted the blonde briefly. She looked around the room, thinking she might have been hearing things. Then, she heard the tapping again, sounding like it was against glass. She turned her attention to her window and sighed. She could not believe her eyes and had to flip her glasses up to make sure that she was seeing right. She saw the same thing with or without the glasses, which was Shego at her window.

“What in the hell?” Trin muttered and then groaned. Shego was at her window. Why was Shego at her window?

“It’s kinda breezy out here. Will you open this damn thing?” Shego demanded, glaring at Trin.

“Oh, yes, please, make orders of me. We both know how will it works.” Trin turned her attention back to her laptop.

“Damn it, blondie! I’m serious. It’s cold!” Shego huffed and her breath fogged up the glass.

“You can’t feel cold,” Trin reminded her. Shego’s powers kept her body’s temperature well above that of the average human.

“I can feel the freaking wind cutting through me! It’s like a thousand daggers out here!”

“What the hell are you doing out there?” Trin inquired, getting up off of her bed and going to open the window. It would be hard to explain the frozen body of an internationally wanted criminal outside the building, after all.

Shego stepped in from the nippy weather outside. “I was taking in the view, of course,” she huffed and rolled her eyes.

“Don’t take that tone with me just because your simple ass is freezing outside my window,” Trin replied, closing the window to prevent the biting fall air from further invading her toasty sanctuary.

“Hey, this is the thanks I get for deciding to grace you with my presence?” the green-skinned thief shot back.

Trin rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. You only came here out of boredom. Your boss was probably ranting about something or another and you didn’t want to hear it.”

That was kind of spot on, but Shego would never tell Trin that. “Whether that’s what happened or not, I came here when I could have been a million other places.”

Trin went back to the bed and her work. “Excuse me while I take the time to feel honored by your presence then. I’ll let you know when I’m done with that, but you have to stand here quietly until I do,” she commented dryly.

Shego only rolled her eyes while taking her time to look around the room. It was painted a light pink, which did not surprise Shego. She noticed a long time ago Trin’s favorite colors seemed to be pink and yellow. Her bedspread was yellow, as were her pillows. The floors were a nicely polished light-colored wood. She had a dresser with a vanity mirror, which was a light, creamy pink. The nightstand by the bed was a matching pink. Despite the color, it was actually a well-put together room and it was clear to a trained eye that the furniture was not cheap.

The room also had a nice flowery aroma to it. She knew this was Trin’s lotion more than her perfume. Whatever lotion Trin used, it made her skin silky smooth. Not to say Shego did not appreciate the perfume Trin wore and she could easily pick the scent up just underneath the magic lotion.

The older woman went to look at the things resting on the dresser, shamelessly pawing through Trin’s possessions. Trin did not seem bothered. She did not even bother to glance up from her laptop as Shego touched her stuff.

Shego spotted Trin’s perfume, which the blonde tended to smell like even after they spent an hour or so fighting. There was a tube of lip-gloss, but nothing else. Trin was apparently a neat freak, which was expected. It would not surprise her if Trin was diagnosed with OCD. She did not even bother to inspect the closet, knowing what it would be full of, namely semiformal and formal wear. Instead, she went over to the bed.

“Do not sit on my bed in the clothes you were outside in, especially since you were just scaling the building,” Trin said. She thought that was so disgusting when people sat on a bed in the clothing worn all day outside. They were just littering a clean bed with outside everything.

“Okay, fine,” Shego replied with a bit of an attitude and she unbuttoned her pants.

“Oh, god, Shego, don’t do that,” Trin commanded, seeing the trouble she just started. _I should’ve expected her to do something like this_.

A devious smile curled onto Shego’s face. “What? You don’t want me on the bed in my clothes. I’m just trying to follow orders.” The raven-haired femme fatale pulled her pants down slowly, wiggling them around her thighs as she lowered them.

“Damn it, Shego, were you raised by monkeys?” Trin inquired, shaking her head. It was like being around a spoiled brat.

“Oh, you know you want to look at my sexy body,” Shego remarked, stepping out of her pants. She did another little wiggle for the blonde, who scoffed and turned her attention to her work.

Shego was so glad Trin expected her to be wild. This allowed her to do crazy things, like strip in front of the hot blonde without said blonde truly freaking out over it. She was also thankful for the excuse to do so, all because of Trin’s big mouth. She wanted the younger female’s attention while doing so, too.

“You’re such a child,” Trin said.

Shego chuckled. “I think my boobs say otherwise. Besides, I’m just trying to match you. Were you expecting me to drop by?” She ogled Trin, who was in a pink camisole and matching shorts that barely went to mid-thigh.

“No, these are called pajamas. I’m trying to work,” Trin pointed out.

“Oh, me, too.” Shego shook her ass.

Trin frowned and tried hard not to look at the practically nude body to the right of her, but the temptation was too great. Look, contrary to popular belief, she was human and she was a lesbian and Shego was gorgeous, so she felt it necessary to at least sneak a peek. So, she glanced at the villainess, who was in her underwear of a black sports’ bra and panties.

Shego would have worn more flattering undergarments if she had known she was going to be taking her close off in front of Trin. It was enough for her to know Trin looked, even though Trin tried to be subtle. But, then Shego had to take things too far, in Trin’s opinion.

Shego sat in the bed and pressed herself against Trin, knowing full well the blonde disliked the contact. It was made worse that so much of their skin touched. Shego smirked as Trin tried to lean away from her without moving from where she was. Moving from her spot would have meant giving up ground, which would have meant admitting defeat, which Trin would never do. Trin huffed when her not-so-subtle getaway was not being respected.

“Shego, do you have to be so goddamn annoying?” the nineteen-year-old inquired. 

“Uh-huh,” the thief answered, including a nod to be more irksome, especially since her chin was pressed against Trin’s shoulder. She supposed she should not enjoy getting on someone’s nerves so much, but Trin made it so satisfying.

“Get off of me,” Trin ordered, taking one hand from her keyboard to shove Shego away.

Shego resisted until Trin took her hand back to hasten her writing on her computer. The villainess took the opportunity to be even more of a pest and to creep Trin out. She leaned down, nuzzling her nose in Trin’s shoulder blade. She inhaled loudly.

“You smell good,” Shego commented. _Wow, that sounds creepy even to me_. Of course, that was even better. Trin would have no choice but to lose her mind.

“Damn it, Shego!” Trin hollered, her face turning bright red. It was a good thing Shin was out or he would have been in her room by now, demanding to know what the hell was going on, maybe even with a weapon because he might think there was a threat in the house for her to uncharacteristically screaming. But, he had gone out to a club after she made sure he put on some acceptable clothing.

“What?” the thief asked with a look of such innocence that it would make an angel jealous. She was shoved away once more and was on the receiving end of a glower that would have slain a demon. She laughed, thoroughly amused with what was going on. She knew coming to see Trin would entertain her.

Trin focused back on the screen of her computer while keeping watch on her uninvited guest out of the corner of her eye. She needed to make sure Shego did not lean on her again. She hated touching so much and Shego never failed to exploit this. 

After a few seconds passed, Trin put most of her attention into her computer and work as she got into a good flow. Shego waited for a while and then suddenly pounced on the blonde, pinning her to the bed, but managing to not knock the laptop to the floor. Trin made a horrible noise; something they were certain a trapped gazelle made when taken down by a pride of lions. Shego smirked.

“Damn it, Shego!” Trin snarled, squirming against the villainess and really just making the whole experience worse. 

“What? You know you like this.” Shego rubbed up against Trin. “After all, you’re pretty much writhing against me.” So, she was definitely enjoying it, especially as she took another whiff of Trin. Oh, she smelled heavenly. It was a subtle scent to her that was different from her perfume and just underneath her lotion. It was almost addictive.

“Let me do my paper,” Trin ordered, trying to push Shego off of her with one hand and grab her laptop with the other. It did not work out for her.

“I’d rather do this,” Shego replied and she continued to push her body against Trin’s wonderful form, rubbing her breasts into Trin’s strong back. Oh, that felt really good, she sighed interally. She glanced down as she moved, watching their pale skin touch. _I actually want her_. 

“Stop it,” Trin commanded in a hard tone. The feeling had not been wholly unpleasant, but she still hated they were touching. People outside of her family touching her in any way just bothered her and it did not help she knew Shego was doing this just to be annoying.

Shego was well aware that Trin was quite serious, but she hoped she could change that. After all, the sensation was quite delightful. Trin would have to be insane to not like it, she thought. Of course, part of her would concede Trin probably was insane. It did not matter, though.

She continued her measured movement and noticed Trin was not really trying to escape. Her shove was just too light and she seemed more intent on getting back to work than getting Shego off of her. Shego knew she had to be careful with this now. If she was too forceful, she would frighten Trin away, which could be dangerous thing. Damn it, if only Trin was like every other human on the planet and just could stand being touched in the simplest manner without it having to be a cause to fight, this could go so much smoother.

“Shego,” Trin huffed.

“C’mon. You know you want me,” Shego whispered right into Trin’s ear. Her lips were dangerously close to Trin’s earlobe and she was certain Trin could imagine what her mouth would feel like nibbling the area. She decided to let Trin’s imagination feel in the blank for the moment, just to get the blonde curious.

Trin tried her best to not shudder in disgust at being touched in so many different places at one time. It was not entirely repulsive and she was more than likely acting up from force of habit. She knew that. Her brain automatically disagreed when Shego made the surprise move of kissing her. Shego thought enough time had gone by to do such a thing where Trin would not instantly slap her.

Trin tasted sweet and Shego knew she would want more. She needed to convince Trin she wanted more as well. She wanted to devour Trin bit by bit and it was so hard to not do that at this very moment.

Trin’s brain commanded her to be completely grossed out and she obeyed almost instantly, flooded with more thoughts than most when caught in an embrace. Where had Shego been? How many other mouths had been kissed by the thief before hers? What had Shego eaten or drank before this? She did not know and she did not care. All she knew was that the mouth was one of the filthiest places on the human body and she would rather not have one come into contact with her own.

Shego noticed now that Trin was trying to subtly flee from her. This actually gave her hope, knowing what Trin could really do if she disliked this as much as she pretended, so Shego tightened her hold on the blonde. She changed the tone of the kiss from near rough to almost gentle. 

Shego knew she needed the contact to say that it was all right to stay, needed Trin to understand it was all right to give in to whatever this was between them. In the end, Trin’s resistance won out and Shego pulled away because she needed to breathe. She made sure to keep her face close to her companion’s, in case the urge to start trouble again came up.

“Are you going to tell me you didn’t enjoy that?” Shego inquired with an arrogant smirk, knowing the answer to the question.

“And if I didn’t?” Trin countered with a cocked eyebrow. She could have liked it… maybe, if that disgusting kiss had not been added to the mix.

The smirk did not leave Shego’s face. “I’m going to do it until you do like it.” She would do that and more until Trin got over her obnoxious phobia of being touched. _Damn eccentric geniuses_ , she silently huffed.

“No.” Trin’s voice shook in a way neither of them had ever heard. Her tropical blue eyes squinted as she studied Shego, as if she was a puzzle Trin needed to solve.

“Yes.”

“What are you saying?” Trin asked. She truly was not sure what Shego wanted to accomplish. Did Shego want to be her girlfriend? She had her doubts they would work if that were the case, considering more often than not, she would like to pummel Shego. Not that it mattered, as she doubted that was the case. Why the hell would Shego want to be her girlfriend, after all? And also, why would she want to be Shego’s girlfriend? Despite all of that, though, it did not change the fact that she had not hated Shego leaning against her.

“I’m saying that I’m going to kiss you until you like it and want to kiss me back and then we’re going to keep kissing and then we’ll kiss some more after that,” Shego answered. She wanted to do more than kissing, but she would have to build up to that with Trin. It was a good thing she loved a challenge.

Trin shook her head. “But, what would that mean?”

Shego’s brow furrowed. “You know, sometimes that brain of yours bugs the hell outta me. What does anything with us mean?”

Trin thought about that for a moment. What did anything mean between them? What were they to each other beyond stalker and stalked? If Shego did not seek her out, they might never see each other again and that was how they were with each other. What would adding the new dynamic do to them? Nothing, aside from making her want to vomit, her mind pointed out.

“I’m going to hurt you if you keep kissing me,” Trin promised.

Shego smirked again, as that sounded like a real good challenge to her. She came in again and Trin struck back. While the thief was kissing her, Trin grabbed Shego’s hand and proceeded to bend her hand backwards. The more pressure Trin put on her wrist, the more pressure Shego put into the kiss. They knew either Trin would run away due to disgust or Shego would have a broken wrist by the time everything was said and done. But, only time would tell which would happen.

-8-8-8-8-

Shin was at the bar of a little club he knew, enjoying the music, smoke, and lasers along with the liquor. He was supposed to be working, but he had not been able to focus on any schoolwork. He figured getting out for a little while would help. So far, no good, but he was not a quitter.

He moved a little in his seat as the house music flooded the place. He found himself coming to this particular club more and more often. He probably should stop, but he could not help himself. Besides, it was not like he was known for having good impulse control.

He sipped a drink and watched people bouncing around on the dance floor. He would have been out there, enjoying every second of just being able to move and burn off his always excessive energy, but at the moment he just wanted to think about things for a while. Some might have thought it would have been wiser to choose a quieter area to do some contemplating, but he was right where he wanted to be.

He had actually thought at first to go drive to Middleton for a while to see his girlfriend. But, he knew better than to visit Tatsu late at night. He had done it once before and he had learned his lesson. He had shown up unannounced, which did not bother Tatsu. It was what he wanted to do that got on her nerves. He had driven all that way and asked if she wanted to go out dancing. She had looked at him as if saying, “You’re stupid and you should wear a sign that says so.” She made things so hard, he always thought.

Tatsu did not dance and she did not go out, as far as he knew, giving him very little reason to visit. When he had stopped by that time, she had assumed he was there for something else, something that he had not even thought of. Tatsu had thought he showed up for sex, which he vehemently denied as the reason. He was not sure if she believed him or not.

He would never show up at a girl’s house unannounced for the sole purpose of having sex. The idea for doing something like that seemed disrespectful in his opinion. And then, there was also the fact that he was not sure why, but he did not find himself, well, to be blunt, sexually attracted to Tatsu. He figured he just needed to see her more often to clear that up. She was a pretty female, so he was not too alarmed by that. Sometimes, he just needed to get used to people.

He should have talked the harpy into coming out, he told himself, as he did nothing around the club. Trin would come out clubbing with him every now and then. Not too often, but sometimes. He had to smooth talk her a lot and make a lot of promises they both knew he would never keep, but she would come out and they would do some dancing. He liked it because it got him a lot of attention to be dancing with a beautiful woman who moved well, once she got started anyway. Trin flowed like water when swaying to a beat. 

Shin decided to go be wild on the dance floor for a little while before he headed back home. As he got up from his seat, he noticed a guy looking at from the corner of his eye. He turned slightly to make sure it was not his imagination and, sure enough, there was a guy a few feet away, eyeing him. It was not the first time he ever caught a guy checking him out and he doubted it would be the last. He laughed a bit to himself and then continued on his way.

Shin did not mind when dudes checked him. He liked the attention and such things stroked his confidence. He knew he was good-looking, but things like that confirmed it for him. He was so damn sexy that he attracted both men and women. It was a win/win thing for him until guys tried to talk to him. Then things got a little awkward, not because he disliked it, but because he had to go into explaining why the fellow had wasted his time.

The half-Japanese teen hated to explain he was not gay. He also detested it when people assumed he was. He did not have anything against gay people. He just disliked being called something he was not. Labels were something he had to deal with since childhood and they were never right. He did not think, no wait, he knew he was not gay. After all, he looked at girls all the time and he liked the way women smelled and moved. He thought no gay man could say those things.

He dismissed those things and went to get some dancing done. Well, he tried to dismiss those thoughts. His mind continued to scoff at the very idea of him possibly being gay. _As if something like that is even feasible_. He had too many girlfriends to be gay. He had more girlfriends than Trin, so he could not be gay, he told himself.

Sure, he never kept those girlfriends long and he treated them more like friends than anything else, but he was not a homosexual. He even had a current girlfriend, further proving he was not a homosexual. Well, he was pretty sure he was not. And then, he realized he was devoting more thought to the subject than he should, so he shook it out of his mind and started dancing his heart out.

“I’m protesting too much to myself,” he mumbled. He needed to do something to stop thinking altogether. So, he joined a huge group on the dance floor and proceeded to take over, becoming the star of the night.

Shin left the club late that night or early that morning depending on who was asked. There were fans following him to the door. Before he hit the street, he felt someone slid a paper into his hand. He turned to see who passed him a number and found a cute guy smiling at him.

“If you ever get a chance,” the guy said and winked at him before falling back.

Shin’s forehead wrinkled, but he did not have a chance to say anything since the guy was gone. He eased the paper into his pants pocket as he walked home; he preferred walking to driving. He felt like he was less likely to kill himself on his feet than behind the wheel of a car. Unfortunately, it gave him a long time to think about the number in his pocket. In fact, he rubbed the pocket for the whole walk.

When he got in, the apartment was dark and silent, which he expected. He peeked into Trin’s room to see if she was still up with the papers or if she was asleep. Trin was still up, typing away at the computer, in the dark.

“Hey, vampire, you want to turn on the light?” Shin teased.

“No, I’d much rather you go take a shower as we have class in the morning and I refuse to go with someone smelling of sweat and cheat club smoke,” she countered.

He expected that and went about his business. Trin continued typing and breathed a sigh of relief. She was glad Shego had left a few minutes ago. 

-*-(New day)-*-

Tatsu was buried in the hood of a car when a knock on the garage door distracted her from work. She went to the door and opened it, even though it was not locked. She was not surprised to see who was there, namely Kim. The petite hero visited her almost daily now. She was surprised by what Kim held, though.

“What’s this?” Tatsu asked, motioning slightly to the bags that were in the redhead’s hands.

“Oh, just some stuff I thought you could use,” Kim answered with a bright smile, hoping to smooth things over with her expression if it was a problem with her buy things for the mechanic. 

“Like what?” Tatsu took the bags from Kim and stepped aside in order to allow the younger teen to come in. When Kim had visited her the first couple of times, she had been very against letting the hero see how she lived, namely in a barren, hollowed out excuse for a garage. Kim did not judge her, though, not even commenting on how dank, cold, or grey the place was. 

“Well, for starters, a couple of new t-shirts,” Kim answered as she shut the door behind her. She had brought the older female some new clothing point blank, as everything Tatsu owned seem to be hanging on by a thread. Tatsu desperately needed new gear.

Tatsu’s creamy brow furrowed as she glanced down at the bags, attempting to see the shirts. “New t-shirts?” 

Kim nodded. “Yeah, a few of the ones you have, I noticed were kind of worn out and have holes in them, so I got you some new ones when I went to the mall. Besides, we both know I’m due to spill something on you sooner or later, so might as well have a replacement shirt on hand.” She chuckled a little.

“Um… thanks,” Tatsu said in a rather uncomfortable tone. Even though she was used to Kim being nice to her by now, new shirts seemed a bit much. No one ever brought her new shirts. She had to take care of things like that for herself and her life had been like that for about a decade now.

“You don’t like them, do you? It was a bit much?” Kim asked with a pout because she had been worrying about that.

“No, it wasn’t,” Tatsu tried to assure the adventurer. She was comfortable with Kim doing this, knowing there was no malicious intent or con game going on. It made sense for Kim to do it, actually. “It’s just… I’m not used to this,” she added to show that it was not a problem.

“Are you sure?” 

“I’m sure. Thanks a lot for this,” Tatsu said with conviction to make sure she was believed.

The blue-eyed girl never knocked anyone for doing something nice for her since it was so rare. She might be suspicious of why the person was doing it, but this was Kim. She could tell that Kim was sincere and did not want something from her like other people when they did nice things for her. She wished she could return the favor, but she was not too sure how. And then, she thought of something.

“Want to go out for a movie?” Tatsu offered. From what she knew about Kim, the redhead liked the movies as much as the next person. She thought it would be nice of her to at least pay for a movie and snacks, even though she had done so on three other occasions when they had done this thing.

Kim grinned. “Spanking!” She then blushed at how enthusiastic she was. Tatsu did not mention it.

“Okay, let me put these things away somewhere and then we’ll go,” Tatsu said and stepped out of the back door.

Kim followed behind her, but did not move from beyond the back door. Right behind the garage, she stayed in a little shack of a place. She went to put the shirts as well as whatever else was in the bags away. They went into a footlocker by her bed, which was a step up from a cot. An idea hit her as she returned to Kim.

“I’ll drive us there,” the mechanic declared.

“Cool,” Kim said. She knew Tatsu could drive and everything, but she hardly ever saw Tatsu do it.

Tatsu actually hated to drive, mostly because other people on the road could not drive. But, she did not mind doing it for Kim. Besides, her car needed attention every now and then, too.

“You know, if you ever need a ride from somewhere, you can call me,” Tatsu offered. It would be a good way to make up for the nice things Kim did for her.

Kim smiled. “Thanks.”

As they went out and got into Tatsu’s car, they both noted something they dared not speak on. It seemed like they were on a date and that seemed to come across every time they went out now. It was weird because whenever they went out, Tatsu paid for everything, no matter how much Kim protested. And then there were the visits by Kim, where she tended to come bearing gifts and how she made sure Tatsu stocked up on certain types of food, hoping to get the mechanic to eat right.

The only thing was they made sure not to touch too often. Tatsu never initiated contact, scared it might run Kim off, even though Kim was tactical with her to a degree. Kim tried not to be too touchy with Tatsu for the same reason Tatsu did not touch her. The mechanic was fun to be around and she did not want to give Tatsu any excuse to push her away, even though she would like to do more than simple pats on the arm or accidentally brushes of their hands. Kim considered taking Tatsu’s hand while they were in the movie, but managed to hold out.

“That movie was pretty good, huh?” Kim asked, wondering if she sounded as awkward to Tatsu as she did to herself. With the way Tatsu glanced at her, she assumed yes and decided not to say anything else. Who knew just wanting to hold someone’s hand could be so nerve racking? 

Tatsu and Kim watched each other out of the corner of their eyes as Tatsu drove Kim home. The air in the car was oddly heavy. It was not pressing, but thick and weird. Tatsu was about to turn onto Kim’s block, but the redhead stopped her.

“Could you maybe… I dunno, just drive around for a while?” Kim requested. 

“Why?” Tatsu’s face scrunched. She continued on, even though she would have preferred to drop the younger teen off and get back to her garage. There was something going on here and she was not sure if she was ready to find out what it was just yet.

“I want to ask you something,” Kim explained. 

“Go ahead,” Tatsu said with a shrug.

“Do we seem weird to you?” 

“We… weird?” Tatsu echoed in a confused tone. She was not following. It was definitely weird tonight for some reason.

“Like our hanging out. Does it seem weird to you?” Kim asked.

The blue-eyed female shrugged. Hanging out point blank was weird for her. Other than Kim, the only person she allowed to be around her for hours was her boyfriend and she did not see him as often as she saw Kim. She was actually happy she did not seem him as often because he could get annoying, really annoying. Kim was nowhere near as irksome as Shin was in her opinion.

Kim sighed; she guessed she was going to have to spell it out. “Are we… dating?” she managed to hold in a grimace, but she was not sure how she did.

Tatsu was not sure how to answer that, so she shrugged. Could she even be dating Kim when she was dating Shin? _Well, I do pretty much the same thing with both of them_ , she commented mentally. Actually, she did more with Kim than with Shin, mainly because she could tell him “no” and it would not hurt his feelings. Shin would take the answer and keep on moving, being annoying in the process most of the time because he would still bug her about things.

Thinking on it, maybe the fact that she did not find Kim as annoying as her boyfriend meant something. There were times when she went weeks without seeing Shin and if he popped up, she would send him away, not wanting to be bothered or distracted from work. She never sent Kim away, no matter how little time passed since she last saw the redhead. She never looked at Kim as a distraction. This had to mean something, right?

“Is that what you want?” Tatsu asked. She had never considered herself bisexual or anything like that, but she had never thought about it. At the moment, her brain just pointed out she dated guys when she could stand being around them for a couple of hours. So, why not date Kim when she could stand her more than almost any dude? Her only problem was that she was still with Shin, but she did not even bring that up.

“Well… if it doesn’t change anything between us too much. I mean, I really like being around you and I think you’re great looking,” Kim explained. She did not add that she suspected she was a lesbian. She thought it might be a good time to start exploring that possibility.

“Okay,” Tatsu agreed with a shrug. It was unbelievable she made it that easy, but then again, that was how Tatsu was once she was comfortable around someone. Kim could not help smiling; obviously, Tatsu had given the correct answer.

-8-8-8-8-

Next time: Shego is sporting an injury that Kim find curious while Shin is rudely rebuffed by Tatsu. Just a lot of weird behavior.


	4. A Regular Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own these characters, except for Trin, Shin, and Tatsu. The rest belong to Disney.

4: A Regular Day 

Shego stared at her bandaged wrist as she settled into her king-sized bed. Flexing her hand, she winced. _What the hell have I gotten myself into?_ She wanted to be annoyed, upset, but a smile refused to leave her face. She knew just what she was into — a good challenge. 

Trin was a hellcat if never there was one, but she was also an uppity bitch. Shego enjoyed being around her, for a reason that was beyond her. It was almost like being around Kim without all of the self-righteous rigmarole, hero complex, and all of the “goody-goodiness.” The fighting was a bit more intense since Trin did not seem to know the difference between sparring and regular fighting. So, it was good to be around Trin and she accepted it as that, knowing she might have to put up with a little pain to go with her pleasure.

But, it was worth it. Spending the night kissing Trin, feeling soft lips and smooth skin was worth it. Sure, Trin had almost broken her arm, but she had never made any real effort to leave. It was like Trin could not allow herself to enjoy anything physical unless it was somehow a fight.

 _Damn Trin and her quirks_ , she silently cursed. Shego had plans to work passed them because a woman like Trin did not need to live her life frightened or disgusted with being touched, especially by Shego. She knew the blonde liked the attention, but she had to get the nineteen-year-old to stop resisting out of habit. She had a job ahead of her, but she was going to work through it.

“Trin won’t know what hit her when I’m done.” Emerald eyes fell to her wrist again. “In both the literal and figurative sense.” Trin almost broke her damn wrist, after all. She could not let that go unpunished.

-8-8-8-8-

Tatsu stared at the dark ceiling while lying in her bed, which was little more than a cot. She did not need or want much in regards to comfort or luxury, which was evident from the fact that she lived in a one-room shack just behind her garage. The only thing it had beyond her bed was a sink and something like a shower. Her mini-fridge and microwave was kept in the garage, as that was where she was most of the time.

She could not sleep, which was nothing new. She tended to stay awake most nights, staying at the ceiling or the wall, unable to sleep for various reasons. She supposed it was a good thing she made her own hours for work or she would have been fired from her job a long time ago due to her sleeping habits. The thing keeping her awake now was the fact that she had agreed to date Kim.

She was not sure why she had done that. She did not regret the decision, only the fact that she made it while still in a relationship with Shin. It was just that she felt like she was more in a relationship with Kim than with Shin. _It’s been that way for a while_.

“Should just call him and tell him it’s done,” she muttered. This did not seem right, though. He deserved more than a phone call. He had not been a terrible boyfriend, not by her standards anyway. Kim deserved the world, though.

If that was the case, she should probably tell Kim about Shin. It was the right thing to do, right? The decent thing and Kim deserved that and more. But, she was pretty sure that news like that would not be taken well. She liked having Kim around, so she did not want to do anything that might keep Kim from coming to visit her or not want to do things with her.

“Stupid,” Tatsu berated herself, glaring into the night. She had already screwed things up. Nothing ever went her way for long, she reminded herself. That was just life. Her life.

-8-8-8-8-

Kim tossed and turned in her bed, trying to get comfortable enough to go to sleep. The quiet night blanketing her room usually was enough to sooth her into rest minutes after her head hit the pillow. She had no such luck tonight, though.

She was a bit troubled about her decision to date Tatsu. She liked Tatsu very much, but she wondered if she was just using Tatsu to discover her sexual preferences. If that was the case, would that be right? How else would she know what she was, though if she did not experiment?

“I don’t want to use Tatsu, though. She’s opened herself up to me and trusted me as a friend. I don’t want to lose that,” Kim sighed.

She was happy Tatsu agreed to date her, but she was already considering she did not feel _that_ way about Tatsu. Maybe that was why she was feeling guilty. She liked Tatsu, but maybe she liked her as a friend and nothing more. Or maybe she was just nervous she might actually be… _that_ way. What would people think? What would her parents think? What would her big sister think? Questions like that built anxiety in her.

-8-8-8-8-

Trin brushed her teeth for the third time. The sound of her brush scrapping against her teeth was like white noise against this haunted feeling she had. She was not sure what to call it, but she knew the cause of it.

She had gotten a visit from Shego again that night, which involved a lot of struggling on her end while making out. There was kissing, caressing, and grinding. It all should have been too much, too disgusting. The trouble was, she had not really fought Shego off. Instead, she allowed it, let kisses float across her skin, her lips, her chest. There was something about it that she did not want to admit to herself.

It was not the first time they had done this and she doubted it would be the last time. She hated to think Shego was winning the battle. After all, the first time it had happened, she had almost broken Shego’s wrist to get her to stop and she had brushed her teeth almost a dozen times that night and actually guzzled all of her mouthwash. Now, she was down to three without mouthwash and she doubted Shego’s wrist was even bruised from that session.

Worst yet, Trin was starting to believe she only brushed her teeth to out of force of habit. This was what she used to do whenever someone kissed her. If that was the case, it would mean she was actually getting pleasure from Shego’s assaults. It was an odd thing for some reason that was beyond her, but getting pleasure from Shego seemed just as outrageous as her getting pleasure from, say, Shin. She could not figure out why that was. But, this disgusted her more than kissing ever could.

Trin looked at herself in the mirror. Stern teal eyes stared back her and the bathroom light somehow helped her look more demonic and serious. “You cannot allow this to go on.” Even as the words left her mouth, she feared it was a load of crap.

-8-8-8-8-

Shin hanged off of his bed sideways, his ebony hair almost touching his carpeted floor. He had called Tatsu earlier and she had not even bothered to answer the phone. It was a first. Even if she did not want to talk, she would acknowledge his call by answering and just inform him she was working or whatever else might keep her busy for a while. He wondered why she would not answer.

“It’s probably nothing,” he muttered, but he felt like it was. It was too weird to be nothing.

He considered she might be upset with him. He was not the best boyfriend she could ask for. He did not do special things for her, take her out, or even buy her nice things unless his evil twin told him that he needed to get off of his lazy ass and do something for her. _It’s bad when someone as antisocial as Trin has to give me advice on what to do with my lady_. But, even though he never did things like that and Tatsu still answered his calls. He could not figure it out. Something was probably wrong.

“Yeah, it’s definitely something,” he sighed. He did not bother to right himself on the bed and eventually fell asleep in that awkward position.

-*-(New day)-*-

Kim stood to face Shego in a rundown warehouse as Ron ran off to figure out away to stop Drakken’s latest doom’s day device, or doom’s day disaster as Ron was starting to look at the machines. The redhead stared at Shego, who stared back. And then the hero spied something weird; Shego’s hand was wrapped in a bandage. Who in the world was strong enough to injure Shego? No, that had to be an accident or something like that.

“Shego, what happened to your hand?” Kim asked as her forehead wrinkled and her eyebrows curled up. She really wanted to know how the villainess had gotten hurt. She just needed to be sure it was an accident. If not, she would have to find the person who hurt Shego and keep an eye on that person, just to make sure that person did not try their hand at villainy.

The pale woman laughed as her eyes drifted to her wrist for a moment. She hated to think what Trin might do to her if she told Kim, “nothing, your freaky anti-touch sister just didn’t like where I was putting my hand.” Once Trin heard about that, they were both going to need a lot of bandages, Shego figured. She was not in the mood to go through that.

“Something that was worth it,” the thief opted to respond with devilish and amused smirk. Thoughts of Trin with her head thrown back filled Shego’s mind for more time than was appropriate for the moment. Yeah, it totally was worth the sprain.

Kim’s brow shifted as her eyebrows knitted in close together. “Like what?” She really wanted to know, not just for safety, but just for her own curiosity now.

Shego decided to stop the question and answer session by going at Kim. She was not looking to share how she enjoyed her time off. Besides, she doubted Kim really wanted to know, even if the teen thought she did. And, heaven help her if Trin even suspected she told such things to Kim.

The pair got into their usual tussle. While moving with Kim, Shego noted the differences between the hero and her older sister. In the beginning, she always thought it was obvious they were sisters, but now, she could see the differences quite clearly.

Trin was much more deliberate in her movements and devilishly calculating. Kim was smoother when she moved and much more defensive than her sister could ever imagine being. Kim was almost like water while Trin was a well-wielded blade, like a scalpel. Kim was not looking to hurt someone too much when she fought while Trin was looking to make her opponent think really hard on coming at her a second time.

Shego found herself thinking she preferred Kim’s style to her sister’s. There was something about the fluid motion that got to her. Yes, Trin was intriguing and made electricity dance down her nerves, but Kim did something more. Shego was not sure what it was, was not sure why she just now noticed, but it was in front of her now, greeting her like an old friend.

Kim noticed a change in Shego, too, beyond the bandaged hand. The green-skinned woman’s seemed even more aware of her movements than usual. Now, she understood they had been fighting for a while now, but it seemed too much for the infrequency with which they saw each other. Shego fought her now almost as if they battled each other every day. The truth of the matter would be that Shego fought with Trin almost every day.

They went at each other for a few minutes until they heard Ron and Drakken yelling, which was followed by an explosion. They stopped as more explosions followed at an alarming rate. Ron came running toward them.

“K. P, let’s get out here! Drakken’s thingy is blowing itself up!” Ron explained in his usual excited tone, not bothering to stop to relay this news. He had not even touched anything for once. The machine just suddenly started going off on its own. Something had to be wrong with Drakken, Ron concluded because of such faulty work.

Shego sucked her teeth and rolled her eyes. Leave to Drakken’s incompetence to spoil her fun. She had been enjoying working up a sweat with the redhead. She needed to fight Kim more often. 

Now, Shego had to go make sure Drakken got out of the place all right and she had to make sure she got out all right. She would have kept an eye on Team Possible, but she knew they could take care of themselves, or so she hoped. She doubted Trin would want to ever see her again if Kimmie died while fighting against her.

“Later, Princess,” Shego sneered as she ran off to find Drakken and give Kim the chance to catch up with Ron. 

“That seemed a little weird,” Ron commented, glancing back to watch Shego bolt off with an arched eyebrow. Usually, she would have stuck around to try to get them trapped in the lair or she would have had one last trick up her sleeve. She never just ran off, especially without saying something smart beforehand. 

“Yeah,” Kim agreed. The two heroes upped their pace as another explosion sounded through the lair. Kim glanced back, but she was not sure why.

-*-(New day)-*-

“Shin, don’t you think you should go see your girlfriend since we have today off?” Trin suggested. She had plans once she got him out of the apartment to hopefully curl up on the sofa and get some reading in before Shego showed up.

The thief had actually called and said that she was coming over, warning Trin. This was not like her, but Trin was happy for this little step out of character. It was up to her to get Shin out of the house or explain to him that she was going to have company. She was going with the easier one.

“You think?” Shin asked, as he snatched up his game controller and was positioned to sit down in an armchair. His plan was to play some video games on the living room television instead of using the set in his room. This could mean he would be in the house all day.

“When was the last time you saw her?” Trin countered. If she had such an indifferent girlfriend… no, she would not care, actually. She would just let the girl continue being indifferent until she figured out it was time to call it quits. Maybe Shin’s girlfriend was the same, she thought.

“Hmm…” Shin tapped his chin with his index finger and contemplated that question for more seconds than most mates should.

“Yeah, when you have to think like that, it’s time to go see your girl,” Trin pointed out quite seriously. “Without killing the car,” she added because he had to be told things like that or she would have to put up with stories later on that started with “you won’t believe what happened…” and that ended with, “well, you never told me not to, so technically it’s your fault!” At this point, she might actually concede that to be true.

Shin sighed and put his game controller down. He went to put on some clothes that would not get him stopped at the door by his evil twin and then he was on his way. He did not bother with calling Tatsu since she seemed to be flipping a coin on if she was going to answer or not. If she did not want to be bothered with him when he showed up, he could always go see his parents and Trin’s parents. He could also check up on Trin’s younger redheaded clone, so it would not be a wasted trip.

Trin was glad Shin left and she did not even have to literally throw him out, which she thought she would. She wanted Shego to show up, even though she planned to struggle with the pale woman as always. She guessed she liked the company, but then again, she liked Shin’s company, too. Hell, she even liked Shin’s kisses; they had made out once in junior high in a failed attempt to have sex with each other. The thought of having sex with Shin was close to vomit inducing the memory of it made her gag. But, then again, the idea of sex point blank turned her stomach and that did not change if she considered sex with Shego.

The blonde decided not think about that. She grabbed the book that she wanted to read and got to that, knowing that it would be impossible to do such a thing when the villainess arrived. She made it through a good deal of the piece of literature before she heard a very small noise. She turned around from her seat on the sofa, facing her room.

“You should be in your room,” Shego commented almost as if she was scolding Trin while stalking toward the couch.

“I’ll be wherever I choose,” Trin replied nonchalantly and then she noticed a mark on Shego’s face. “What happened to your lip?” she asked, almost sounding curious, but she caught herself and sounded as she usually did.

“What? Oh, this?” Shego then licked the bruise as the corner of her mouth. “Your damn sister kicked the hell out of me,” she explained as if it was nothing.

“That’s my Mini-me,” Trin remarked, putting her chin in the air. She could not be prouder of that kid if she tried.

“Yeah, she got me good,” Shego muttered in agreement. She had not thought the little hero had it in her to whack her a good one, but it would seem she was wrong. She was silently impressed. “And I’m going to take it out on you,” she decided.

“Come over here and I’ll finish what my little sister started,” Trin declared confidently.

Shego only smirked as she stood before Trin and then she lowered herself onto the sofa. Trin retreated from the advance somewhat, as far as the back of the couch would allow her anyway. Shego continued coming and attacked the blonde in her usual fashion when they were in the house, she kissed Trin. As expected, Trin resisted, but not too much.

-8-8-8-8-

Shin arrived at Tatsu’s place surprisingly intact. She was surprised to see him when she answered the door. They stood there for a long moment, looking awkwardly at each other, almost as if they did not know what they should do. And then, Tatsu recalled Kim said she would be back; she had run off earlier due to a mission. It would not be in her best interest for Shin to be there when Kim finally did return.

“What are you doing here?” the mechanic inquired almost rudely.

“Want to go to a race?” he countered, not paying much mind to her curt question. He did not even think to kiss or hug her as a greeting. There was something about her that always seemed to say touching was off limits. Lots of his girlfriends had the same vibe and it never bothered him.

“I have work,” Tatsu answered, pointing over her shoulder to direct his attention to the car waiting for her.

Shin shrugged. Ah well. He tried. The shrew had to give him credit for that. “Okay, well, I’m going to go hit the races. I’ll come back by you before I leave to go home,” he said.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” she assured him.

Shin shrugged again. Tatsu made it so easy to be her boyfriend, he thought. She was not nearly as demanding as the other girls he dated. He needed to stay with her, he thought. Well, while he was lazy anyway. There was always a chance someone new would wander by him and distract him. He was known to be would happily be distracted by people.

“So, bye,” Tatsu bid him farewell rather hastily.

Before Shin could react to that, Tatsu shut the door on his face. Now, that he thought was weird. It was like she did not want him around. He knew she was like that with most other people, but she typically tolerated his presence. She had never slammed a door in his face before.

“What the hell is going on?” he mumbled. He doubted she would tell him, not right now anyway. Maybe when he came back, she would be open to talking about whatever was up with her.

He walked off, lacking a better thing to do. He went to the races like he wanted to and experienced something that happened often at the races. A few of the male drivers gave him looks, come-hither stares. He smirked to himself; he swore that it was just because he loved the attention. But, then he remembered the phone number for the club and rubbed his pocket, even though the paper was long gone. Shaking that feeling away, he focused on the race.

Once he was done, having fun placing bets and drinking, he ended up going to party with a bunch of the drivers afterwards. He did not think about Tatsu while he was out. He also reveled in the attention of several cute guys.

-8-8-8-8-

Kim showed up at Tatsu’s place minutes after Shin left. Tatsu felt something flutter in her stomach and she knew it was not a good thing. She was nervous Shin might pop up again while Kim was here. She just wanted to enjoy her time with Kim. _Damn it, I should’ve broken up with him he was here!_ Of course, he had not been there long since she practically shoved him out of the door, but she had missed a prime opportunity.

“Hey, you okay?” Kim asked.

Tatsu greeted her with a small peck on the mouth, which caused Kim to smile. Kim thought it was a bit funny that Tatsu was so considerate and knew the right things to do in a relationship for the most part, yet almost everyone around town thought the blue-eyed woman was some kind of monster. She knew for a fact that people’s perceptions of someone were not always even close to accurate. After all, the whole freaking town hated her big sister and Trin was extraordinary and lovely in her opinion. 

“How was your mission thing?” Tatsu inquired, looking Kim over and noticing a few Band-Aids on her arms. She brushed her fingertips over the bandages.

Kim shrugged. “It went pretty good,” she answered and then she saw the mechanic looking at her injuries. “Don’t mind these. They’re not deep,” she assured the older teen.

Tatsu frowned a little. “What happened?”

“Oh, well, Shego, that’s the sidekick to the mad scientist I’m always going after, came at me to fight like we usually do. We fought like usual, but then she just suddenly slashed me. In return, I kicked her pretty hard in the face. For some weird reason, she apologized to me and said she scratched me because for a quick second she forgot who I was,” Kim explained.

The hero had actually done a move that reminded Shego of Trin while they were fighting and she reacted like she would with Trin, realizing too late she was battling the little sister. It was a good thing she would not hurt Trin up too badly or she might have cut Kim alarmingly deep, but the wounds were no worse than if Kim had cut herself on a pushpin. Kim had kicked her so hard in the face more on instinct than anything else.

“Well, did you get the bad guy?” Tatsu asked, ushering Kim in deeper into the garage. She pulled out a stool for Kim to sit on.

“No, I didn’t. I stopped his plot and everything, but he got away again as his lair started blowing up on its own again,” the redhead answered with a bit of a disappointed expression. She shook her head. Drakken would be the death of her and Ron one day, she thought with the way his machines were now spontaneously combusting. 

Tatsu put her arm around Kim’s shoulders to lift the younger girl’s spirits. “You did your best and you saved the world, anyway. You’ll get the bad guy next time, I’ll bet,” she said in her usual mumbled tone.

The younger woman grinned widely. “You’re too smooth for your own good, you know.” 

Tatsu scoffed a little. “Not smooth,” she objected with her face scrunched up. She just liked making Kim feel wanted and good about herself. Kim was trying to do the same for her. She thought it was the least that she could do.

“Very smooth. So, are you going to take me out for saving the world or are do you have work?” Kim inquired. 

“I could take you out,” Tatsu replied. She did not like the idea much since Shin was wandering around the neighborhood, but it was big town and she was certain she could avoid the places he haunted when he was around. She would rather that than waiting around in the garage when Shin might just show up again. Besides, Kim deserved better than hanging around the garage for an extended period of time.

Kim smiled again and put her arms around Tatsu as a yes. So, they went out. When they were outside, they behaved like friends. Tatsu was not a fan of public displays, which was good because Kim was not looking to be openly homosexual around anyone just yet. She had not even told anyone that she was, not Ron, not her sister, and those were her closest confidants. She never thought she would keep secrets from them until now.

-8-8-8-8-

Next time: Shin and Trin discuss their relationships. Tatsu thinks over her relationships and more things blow up thanks to Drakken to the point he could be the death of Kim and Ron.


	5. Assume Nothing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own these characters, except for Trin, Shin, and Tatsu. Everyone else belongs to Disney.

5: Assume Nothing 

Shin thought it was odd as he called Tatsu, but she did not pick up. It was now happening more often than not and he was not sure what to make of it. He went over to her place a few times and most of the time he was turned away. _She’s acting weird_ , he thought, _more so than usual_. She was acting like not only did she not want to be bothered with him, but she did not even want to acknowledge his existence.

“I think my girlfriend is cheating on me,” Shin commented as if it was nothing, reporting this information to Trin. He thought that would explain why she was acting so strangely, even though he did not think Tatsu was the type to cheat. She just did not seem to like being around people. Maybe she decided she did not want to be around him anymore, which was probably way more likely than her cheating on him. Still, he could not shake the feeling that something was going on.

The best friends were on the sofa in their living room, lounging about in their pajamas. Trin leaned on the couch while Shin leaned on her, which was his way of hinting he wanted her to brush his hair for him sometime that night. She silently refused; _the lazy bum needs to do something for himself_ , she huffed mentally. He knew if he kept it up, she would cave and brush his hair for him, though. He just had to out last her.

“Can you blame her?” Trin riposted, almost as if she did not care. She did not even bother to look at him.

“Are you siding with her?” he inquired.

“Maybe. The weather is getting warmer, nicer and you could go to see her more.”

“I have,” he insisted.

“Not by much, though. I mean, what have you done for her or with her, especially when you go out to see her?” she pointed out. She would not judge Tatsu if she was cheating.

“She’s not letting me do anything.”

She rolled her eyes. “Were you doing anything before she decided to stop taking your calls?”

Shin shut up from that. He supposed it did not even matter. He had known he and Tatsu were not going to work out from almost the start of things. She had never seemed too enthused about the relationship in the first place and he never seemed that way about girlfriends anyway.

Added to that, he was seriously thinking about himself, becoming a little more self-aware than he was used to. He had been doing a lot of clubbing lately and he noted more and more often, his attention shifted toward guys in the room, especially if the guy paid some attention to him. Sometimes, while a girl spoke to him, he would not even pay her any mind due to the fact that a male had his attention in some way.

“Harpy, how did you know you were gay?” Shin asked as if it was nothing at all, like that had been talking about the whole time.

“Why do you want to know?” she countered in a similar tone. She glanced at the coffee table, hoping a book would catch her eye. Nothing there seemed interesting and it took her more self-control than she wanted to admit to not check her phone to see if Shego contacted her. Shin would focus on that to distract himself over whatever was bothering.

He glared at her for a moment. “Because I do.”

“Well, you can’t have everything you want. Why, does God’s gift to women think he’s gay?” Trin teased a bit. 

Shin rolled his chocolate eyes. He often acted like he was God’s gift to the opposite sex, but it was not like he did not have evidence to back him up. He knew he could get girls easily, and often did. There were times when he had gaggles of girls around him and he could have his pick.

It was just that for a long time, he found his mind wandering to the same sex when it came to dating, attracting, and even sex. It was happening a lot more now and he was not sure why. Maybe it had to do with the fact that Tatsu was being flakey with him and it was not the other way around like it usually was when he was with a girl. It just seemed like as more time passed, it was going to be something he was going to have to look into. He was going to have to explore the same gender, he believed. If only for scientific purposes.

“How are things going with you and your girlfriend?” Shin inquired.

“Did I ever say I had a girlfriend?” Trin countered. Of course he would want to deflect now. Heaven forbid he actually have to think about things going on in his life and in his head.

“Of course not, but I can read your mind, duh,” he commented, as if that was the truth. He was around her enough and knew her well enough to where he pretty much could read her mind most of the time. It was generally annoying, for both of them.

“Ah, yes, I continuously forget about this power since you never wash the dishes when I’m thinking you should,” she remarked dryly.

He chuckled a little. “You never think it fast enough.” 

“Ah.” Trin nodded as if that made sense; it made sense coming from him anyway.

“So, what’s the deal with you and your girlfriend? I know you wait for her after class when you shoo me off,” he stated.

Trin rolled her eyes. “So?” She figured he would pick up on that sooner or later. It probably took him longer than most.

“Well, what’s up with her? You’ve been with her longer than any other girl, haven’t you?” he asked.

She waved him off, bored with this topic. “So what of it? You’ve been with your girlfriend longer than any other girl too, but you two don’t seem to be doing much. Besides, she’s not my girlfriend.” She had no idea what Shego was to her and she typically did not think about it. Whatever the hell they were, they seemed to be doing fine by them… sort of anyway.

Whatever she had with Shego seemed lacking, but Trin would never admit that, not even to herself. There was a void in between them and neither thought on what it might be, neither of them even mentioned it. But, she was very aware ignoring something never made it go away and she knew Shego knew this, even though Shego liked to live this laissez faire lifestyle. 

They were similarly skeptical on things between them in general for the simple fact they got along as best could be expected. This was not great, needless to say. They picked fights with each other and never had real conversations, only snipping at each other. Trin found she did not even desire to have a real conversation with Shego and Shego was probably of like mind, which was why she never tried to start one.

But, they were not looking to trouble the waters at the moment. It could be worse, after all. But, she suspected they lacked a certain amount of trust that should exist between mates, which was probably why they never thought of each other as girlfriends. Hell, she barely considered Shego a friend. 

“She’s not your girlfriend? You mean you ditch me for a friend?” Shin scoffed in disbelief and rolled his eyes so hard he should have been scared they would fall out of his skull.

His harpy did not make friends. She had associates and girlfriends. Associates were for business and girlfriends were for whatever semblance of pleasure Trin got since she disliked touching, loathed kissing, and actually believed that sex should be considered criminal when it came to her. She would never leave him for a simple associate while she would do so for a girlfriend, as she had a habit of wanting girls to feel somewhat special while with her for whatever brief period of time they would be together.

“Must you be silly?” she retorted.

“Well, excuse the hell out of me for knowing you. So, explain to me how things are with this girl who is not your girlfriend,” he said.

“They are…” Trin paused and considered the best way to put things and it caused her to shudder when the first and possibly best way to explain things hit her. “It’s like being with you,” she said. It had crossed her mind more than a few times, but now she realized that was how things actually were. _Damn_. It was even more disturbing to say aloud. She shuddered.

He regard her with a puzzled expression, forehead so furrowed his hairline moved forward. “Like being with me?” He was not sure if he wanted to think about what that meant.

“Yes, it’s like being with you if you had breasts. She and I spar like I do with you, just as hard, too. We speak to each other in the same manner that I do with you. She demands my attention whenever she’s with me just like you do and she gets on my nerves just like you do. Uncle Shin did not have children before you, did he?” she inquired with an arched eyebrow. It would explain a lot.

Sticking his chin in the air, Shin smirked and put his hand under his chin to pose. “I am the one and only, baby.” He doubted he would have been born if his father had had a child before him. His parents would have seen what they were working with and realized they needed to focus all of their attention on keeping their insane offspring from dying, which was what they did with him. They did a good job, even though he kept them on their toes, making sure to come close to death at least once a month when he was little. He probably had taken years off of their lives now that he thought about it.

“Yeah, who would want more after you?” she remarked.

“So, what you’re saying is, if I had breasts, you’d let me screw you mindless?” he asked, almost as if it was something that he wanted to do. He actually never had been inclined to want to have sex with his evil twin. He found himself looking at her sometime, but nothing too deep to the point where he would want to screw her. She was like a sister to him, after all. A twin sister at that.

She curled her lip at him. “Why would you even ask that?” She had not and would never have sex with Shego… or Shin for that matter.

He scoffed. “You’re the one admitting you’re screwing someone like me.” 

Sighing, she rubbed the top of her eye briefly. “I didn’t say all that. You have a girlfriend that you need to screw.”

Shin arched an eyebrow. How did she know? He had to find out. “How’d you know I haven’t screwed her yet?”

She scoffed. “Truly? You think you’re some mystery? You’re not the only mind reader around here. Besides, you’ve told me enough information for me to surmise that you’ve done very little with your girlfriend, like most of your girlfriends. You almost seem anti-touch.”

He did not argue. Most of his girlfriends, he never did anything with. He was no virgin, but he did not sleep with as many girls as he could, which was weird for him. Shin was close to the very definition of hedonism and yet, he did not indulge in the flesh too often. It was just rarely inclined to do so, even with his many girlfriends, who were all very attractive. They both knew that was strange.

“So, you were saying your girlfriend is cheating on you,” Trin said, waiting for him to elaborate on that. She continuously used the word “girlfriend” because he never bothered to tell her the names of his girls and she never bothered to tell him the names of hers. It was almost as if they thought if they did not give the girls’ names then they did not exist to the other and they could always see themselves as the centers of each other’s universe. Besides, the girls were never around long enough to bother learning names.

He shrugged, like this was no big deal. “Probably.” It was definitely something.

“You’re calm about this. It’s rather surprising,” she said. She had never had a girl cheat on her, but she could see it in their eyes plenty of times that they wanted to. She could do a lot of things for her girls, but physical pleasure was asking way too much of her. She cringed just thinking about it, even now after all she had gone through with Shego.

She was not sure what she would do if she did have a girl cheat on her. It would bother her, especially if the girl tried to kiss her after she found out she was being two-timed. She already often wondered where the hell someone’s mouth had been when the person kissed her, but to know that it was on someone else’s filthy mouth and now the person was trying to kiss her, the very idea made her want to throw up. 

Beyond that the touching, she would feel like she was lacking. What had she failed to provide her girl with to make her cheat? The answer for this was glaringly obvious for Shin, which she felt meant it would take him days to understand.

“She might not be,” he said.

“But, you suspect she is, so there’s something there and you’re being an adult about it. Strange.”

“I know,” he agreed. He did not know why he was so calm about it, but it really did not bother him if Tatsu was cheating on him. What had he done to hold on to her, after all? He just wished she would break up with him instead of doing something that was actually unlike her. It would certainly make things easier on him because he would not have to worry about her anymore and he could do whatever he wanted without having to think about needing to spend time with her. 

-8-8-8-8-

Tatsu was supposed to be working. There was a car in front of her, but she barely noticed it. She was lost in her own head.

She could not believe she was cheating, on both Kim and Shin in her opinion since she had not said anything to either of them about the other one. Kim and Shin did not know about each other, did not know about her relationships with them. She felt rather bad about it and the guilt slowly ate away at her. She knew eventually she would have to do something, probably break up with Shin. She would just need to get the guilt to stop; she hated the feeling. 

She had plenty of chances to break up with Shin. Both over the phone and in person, but she did not. Whenever she saw him, the guilt devoured her and she just wanted him to disappear. She felt bad whenever she looked at him and did not know how to handle it. She was not used to this.

“I should’ve done something… like broken up with him a long time ago,” she sighed. Something beyond the pain held her back, but she was not sure what. Maybe she just did not want to be the bad guy, even though she knew she was.

She and Shin got along rather well, but they probably never should have been a couple. She did not like many of the things he did. She was not looking to party at all while that was one of his favorite things. He did not like to take her out when it was just them, like on a regular date. He hardly ever hugged or kissed her and she honestly did not want him to. She was not even sure if she was physically attracted to him. It was just so obvious they never should have been a couple, she told herself.

“It did not matter,” she muttered to the air.

She did not know what she was going to do about everything. She did not like lying, especially to Kim, but she knew if she told the truth, Kim would be hurt. Kim would probably want to break up. She just was not ready for that. She liked having Kim around. 

The redhead took her into consideration whenever they did something together. It was not something she was used to and she had grown to appreciate and like it. She did not want to lose that and she did not want to cause agony to the person that made her feel so wonderful.

“I did this to myself,” Tatsu hissed with a scowl and she slapped her palm against the cold body of the car. 

She did not feel sorry for herself. It was her fault. She had made the mess, so she needed to figure out how she could get herself out of it. She guessed the first thing to do would be to break things off with Shin. She doubted he would care if she broke things off. He more than likely knew they were hardly in a relationship at this point. He was a very smart guy, after all.

“I just have to man up,” she told herself. 

She was not sure what she would have to do after that. Should she or would she tell Kim? She knew if she kept her mouth shut, it was unlikely that Kim would ever know. After all, who would be able to tell her? Only she and Shin knew they were dating and she doubted someone like Shin knew someone like Kim. He was way too much of a crazy goof to know a kind, straight-laced girl like Kim.

“But, it wouldn’t be right to never tell her and she deserves the right thing,” Tatsu sighed, scratching the top of her head.

She cared about Kim and she would rather be honest with the redhead than sneaky. She sighed again. Relationships were such trouble. She hated having to think so much on something and still not know what to do. She would rather be in a situation that just allowed her to act, where she almost instinctively knew what to do. Right now, she was not sure if there was a solution to her problem. Not a favorable solution anyway.

“Look at what you did, idiot,” Tatsu berated herself, hitting herself in the forehead with the heel of her hand. She figured she would lose Kim either way. The guilt would get to her if she did not tell and if she did tell, it would hurt Kim and she was willing to bet a smart girl like Kim would not want anything more to do with her. She was going to be all alone again. The very idea made her chest hurt.

It never would have bothered her in the past to be alone, but she did like Kim. She liked being around her and doing things with her. Hell, to a small extent, she liked being around Shin, too, but with the way he acted, there was a chance he would still want to be friends. The problem was that he just was not the same kind of good company as Kim was.

Tatsu wished she could stop thinking about it. She did not want to trouble herself with her screw up, but since it was her screw up, it stayed on her mind. She knew what she was going to have to do after a while and that did not help ease her mind.

“Damn it,” she sucked her teeth.

-8-8-8-8-

“What is wrong with Drakken? Why does everything blow up now without any help?” Ron hollered in a tone of disbelief as he and Kim tried to escape yet another lair of her arch foe. Ron could not understand why every time they went after Drakken now an explosion had to follow. They did not even have to touch things anymore. Fires just went off and sparks flew on their own. It was mighty sloppy work in Ron’s opinion and most people would agree with him.

“I don’t know, but I wish he would get his act together,” Kim said and then she noticed bits of the ceiling breaking off. “Look out, Ron!” She jumped to push Ron out of the way and saved him from having debris collapse on top of him.

Ron stumbled because of the suddenness of the shove, but the sound of things crashing to the floor let him know why he had been pushed. He turned around to make sure Kim was still with him and not buried underneath the ceiling. He breathed a sigh of relief that she was all right. He grabbed her by the hand and they continued on their way, trying to get out of the self-destructing lair in tact.

They made it to an exit just as more of the ceiling caved in. Kim pushed Ron once more to make sure he got through the exit. He fell into the snow outside, but quickly turned around, looking for Kim. He did not see her and his heart sank as his eyes widened with panic. 

“K. P!” Ron screamed at the top of his burning lungs hoping for an answer. “K.P!” he continued to yell as he tried digging through the snow and junk from the lair. “Kim!” To compound his problems, there was a snow slide and he lost his place. “No, no, no! KIM! KIM!” he hollered as tears gathered in his eyes and he just started digging where he now stood.

“What the hell are you screaming about?” Shego inquired as she climbed out of the snow, shaking the cold, white powder out of her hair. 

“K.P’s trapped in there!” Ron answered, not thinking about whom he spoke to. He just knew he needed help finding his best friend.

“Trapped? What the hell do you mean?” Shego asked in a frantic tone as she rushed over to give him a hand. 

He moved more snow, shoving it away, not caring that the cold nipped at his fingers through his gloves. “She’s in this mess somewhere!”

“Damn it! Okay, you search there and I’ll search on the opposite side,” Shego said, pointing to where she would be.

Ron agreed because he would take any help he could get. Hell, the devil himself could have shown up right now and offered to look in exchange for the blonde’s immortal soul and Ron would have readily agreed. He began searching for the missing redhead and Shego did the same.

Shego’s heart was in her throat as she looked around for Kim. _Be okay, be okay, be okay_. If Kim was not all right, Trin would kill her. But, her heart was not about to explode because of that.

This was beyond the fact that she did not want Trin’s little sister to die. It was because she did not want _Kim_ to die. _Be okay, be okay, be okay_. She was not sure what she would do with herself if Kim did not make it out of this. Well, she would probably start with killing Drakken.

Shego and Ron lost sight of each other as they continued their search through the piles of snow. As minutes ticked by, Ron got colder and colder and his fingers felt frozen even with his gloves. To make matters worse, it started snowing.

Shego did not really notice the freezing weather since her powers kept her warm. They continued searching and then Shego dug up a slender, small hand. She yanked until the arm connected to the hand emerged from the snow, which was followed by the body of the unconscious hero. Shego breathed a sigh of relief.

“Okay, okay, okay,” Shego could not help grinning to herself, but anxiety remained burning on every nerve ending. It did not help that Kim was paler than she was right now.

A million things flooded the thief at once as she saw how blue Kim was. Among the things she felt were dread and sorrow, thinking she might be too late. She felt anger toward herself, Drakken, and even Ron if Kim was dead. Drakken had put Kim in the situation, she had delayed Kim in the situation, and Ron was supposed to be there to help Kim, but obviously did not. She even felt some disappointment in Kim for being such an idiot as to get caught up in some of Drakken’s madness/stupidity. But, then her mind reminded her that Kim needed help and Ron was probably freezing to death looking for his best friend.

Shego checked to make sure Kim still had a pulse. It was faint, but there. She then searched for Kim’s communication device as she cradled Kim to her body. She started walking, holding Kim as close to her as possible. She figured her body could be able to warm Kim enough to keep her alive. Now, she had to figure how to contact Ron on the thing. She did not want to end up saving Kim only to have the redhead find out that Ron froze to death looking for her. 

The snow increased and made it hard to see what she was doing with the communication thing. Once she figured out how to call Ron, she kept her eyes open for shelter in the snowstorm. She needed to get Kim some place where they could wait this thing out.

“K. P?” Ron practically chirped.

“No, Sir Useless. I did find her, though,” Shego reported. “You need to get your dumb ass off of this stupid mountain while you can.”

“Is she okay?” he pressed in a desperate tone.

“She’s fine. I just don’t want to keep her in this mess for any longer than necessary. I’ll take care of her. You take care of yourself. You’ll see her again soon,” she promised.

He obeyed because of the weather and he was very close to dying from exposure. He hoped she was telling him the truth. She hoped he managed to get some place safe.

Shego eventually found a small cabin, which was good enough for her. There was not much in the place, but there was a bed for her to lay Kim in to warm the girl up. She stripped Kim from the wet clothing she wore and then wrapped her in the blanket on the bed. She also stripped out of her own clothing, which was also wet and laid down next to Kim. She thought the added body heat would help Kim.

Now that she had a chance to collect her thoughts, Shego asked herself what the hell was she doing. Why was she so worried? And as she stared at Kim, it hit her. All those times she was trying not to hurt Kim, it was not because she did not want to upset Trin, but just because she did not want to hurt Kim. She liked being around Kim. She liked Kim for some reason, just the vibe that the teen gave off, the type of person that she was. She liked Kim. 

-8-8-8-8-

Next time: break ups all around!


	6. Discovery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own these characters, except for Trin, Shin, and Tatsu. Disney owns the rest.

6: Discovery

Shin could not take it anymore. He had let his thoughts nag him enough. He had to find out if he was gay or not. He was the kind of guy who just dived right into things, so he decided to dive right into that, as well. 

“Good thing I didn’t talk this over with the shrew. I bet she’d have talked me out of this.” And Shin was convinced this was a brilliant idea. He did not need Trin acting like he was an idiot for doing this.

This was why he found himself in a dark nightclub right after the idea hit him. He picked up a guy who he thought was good looking and worth experimenting with. It was just as easy as picking up girls, but there was something… better about it, more thrilling and just made him tingle. _I might need more scientific terminology for this_.

“I need you to understand I’m conducting an experiment here,” Shin told the guy, motioning between them.

The guy smirked and made a show out of brushing Shin’s hair out of his face, giving Shin a chance to feel his skin. “Is it medical?”

Shin chuckled. “Scientific, but it will definitely involve all sorts of anatomy. And, other things. So, I suppose a biological experiment.”

“Oh, that sounds fun.”

“I should hope so.” Shin smiled. “Perhaps you’d like to hear more about it?”

“I am quite open to learning more about this experiment. Are you a scientist?”

“A biochemist, actually.”

The guy seemed rather intrigued by Shin, which was good enough for the half-Japanese male. Shin needed someone who was not looking for a relationship and could understand this was just about a little bit of fun. He was starting to believe he was not made for relationships considering the effort, or lack there of, he put forth in every single one that he had. Plus, this idea of doing things just for fun sounded way too appealing to his mind.

-8-8-8-8-

Shego paced in a hotel suite she decided to hole up in for a while. After rescuing Kim from a frozen grave, Shego realized she liked Kim. More than liked, actually. She cared about Kim, cared about Kim on a level she barely wanted to think about. That made her life more complicated than it would have been under different circumstances. It went beyond the fact that Kim was the hero and she was villain, but also the fact that she had a thing going on with Kim’s older sister. Life was so hard suddenly.

Did she risk telling Kim? What if Kim rejected her and then what if Kim went and told Trin about how her foe had attempted to pick her up? She would be out of both sisters then and she definitely did not want that. She liked Trin and all. Well, she liked fooling around with Trin and getting on her nerves. She felt something much deeper for Kim now that she knew the teenager was not going to die. What was she supposed to do? She was not sure.

-8-8-8-8-

Tatsu sat in her garage, leaning against a car. She had been lost in her thoughts, but now she knew what she had to do. At least she was pretty sure what she had to do. She was never too sure where she picked up a conscience, as she was certain she did not inherit the little voice in her head. But, she was glad she had it. She would rather do the right thing, even if it would hurt like hell later on. Well, she would rather do the right thing for someone she cared about anyway.

So, she would have to break up with Shin and she would have to tell Kim about how she had been in a relationship while she was with Kim. She doubted it was going to go well, but she knew she needed to get it out of the way. She needed to be honest with Kim and with Shin. She liked both of them, sure in different ways, but she thought they at least deserved her honesty.

Tatsu gnawed the corner of her mouth briefly. “If only this new found integrity could keep me company like Kim does.”

-8-8-8-8-

Trin was alone in the apartment and very much enjoyed the quiet. She was on the sofa with a book and some popcorn, just loving the fact that Shin was not around. But, the peace did not last long. She turned her attention to her room door as it opened and Shego stepped out.

“Why don’t you just knock on the front door?” Trin inquired, motioning to the front door.

“That’s not fun,” Shego answered with a shrug and a scoff. She would have thought that was obvious.

“It’s less troublesome, but I shouldn’t expect you to do the less troublesome thing,” Trin remarked as Shego approached her and she noticed the villainess’ expression.

Shego did not look like she usually did. Her face was tense, her body language tight, and the look in her eyes sullen while serious with lines underneath them. Trin had never seen her in such a state. She was not sure what to make of it and wondered what she should do, if she should do anything.

Things only got stranger as Shego sat on the far end of the sofa instead of pouncing on Trin like a crazed maniac. The raven-haired woman sighed and stared mostly at the floor. Now, the look made sense. Trin could guess what was coming as she was sort of an expert on the matter.

“You’re breaking up with me,” Trin said, making sure to keep her usual disinterested tone.

Emerald eyes went wide. “What?” Shego’s voice was laced with disbelief. Could the blonde read minds? 

“I’ve had it happen to me in every relationship I’ve ever had, not that this was a relationship, right?” Trin pointed out, making a bland circle with her index finger. It made things easier on both of them to say they did not have a relationship. 

The thief shrugged, but it seemed like there was a weight on her shoulders. “That’s true, but it was something and I think most of what it was could continue on, but not what we usually do when I show up here.” She actually hoped things could continue for the most part.

Trin nodded. She liked that idea. She had never actually remained friends with girlfriends once they broke up with her, but that was because they did not totally interest her, or had lost her interest somewhere along the way. This was not the case with Shego. 

They had something slightly unique. It would have been completely unique if only Shego did not remind her so much of Shin. Maybe because Shego reminded her of Shin was the reason she would not mind being friends, or whatever they would be, and it was also why she could accept the breakup. Not that she ever truly lamented losing girlfriends.

“Might I ask why you’re breaking up with me?” Trin inquired. 

Shego let loose a long sigh, childishly puffing out her cheeks as she rubbed the back of her neck. “Well… this is going to sound very, very bad, but good thing I’m the bad guy around here,” she remarked, smirking a bit just to seem normal.

Trin rolled her eyes. “I don’t think you want to measure rap sheets around here.”

“That’s true.”

“So, do I get my reason?” Trin asked. She was trying her best not to press the issue or make it seem like a big thing, but she really wanted to know. After all, she liked being around Shego to a degree and she thought that the villainess liked being around her, too. Not to mention, Shego had started this whole mess and dragged her along for the ride. She deserved to know why she was being dumped along side the road.

Taking a deep breath, Shego consciously told herself not to mumble. “I might possibly be in love with your sister,” she confessed. She tried her best not to look away, but she failed in the end, glancing at the wooden floor. 

Trin had been expecting a lot of answers, but not that one and it showed on her face. Her eyes went wide and her mouth fell open. She took a calming breath, closed her book, and took her glasses off. It was like she was preparing to battle, Shego noted. Trin just rubbed her eyes and placed her glasses back onto her face. Okay, so the ass kicking might be on hold, which was good. Then, those tropical eyes looked at Shego as if she had singlehandedly killed every pink thing on Earth, so Shego thought she might be in for the fight of her life.

“What the hell have you been doing with my little sister?” Trin demanded with a snarl, losing her cool demeanor for the first time since Shego had met her outside of a fight. The look in her eyes warned that if Shego did not give her an acceptable answer there would be a murder in the very near future.

Shego held up her hands chest level in surrender. “Calm down, I didn’t do anything with her. She hasn’t told you about a recent mission of hers?” she asked, even though she knew that Kim did not report her missions to Trin.

The furious look did not leave Trin’s eyes. “No. What happened?”

“There was a little mishap in Drakken’s lair. Long story short, Kim was trapped under some snow and I saved her, which was when I realized that I cared about her,” Shego somewhat explained.

Trin was silent for a moment and she pressed her palms together. She suspected there was a lot more to this than Shego let on. She might actually have to ask Kim about her missions. She might actually need to talk to this Drakken guy.

“Does my sister care for you in return?” Trin’s voice was smaller than usual. She did not know what else to say and it seemed like an important question to ask.

“I don’t know yet. I haven’t even told her. I figured I’d tell you first and see if I was going to have to kill you before I got to Kim,” the thief remarked.

Trin was quiet again and resisted the urge to massage the center of her chest, feeling quite an acute pain there. She had lost Shego to Kim? Wow, her pride was stinging quite considerably. She took a deep breath and told herself she could be a big person about things. She could and would take things in an acceptable fashion.

“Shego, take care of Mini-me,” Trin said in a strong tone, indicating she was actually forcing it. If she truly meant it, she would have sounded like she always did, indifferent and bored.

With a shrug, Shego sighed. “Well, I have to tell her first. Thanks for being so understanding about this, blondie.” She had a feeling things would go as they were since Trin had to always at least appear in control and most of the time, she wanted to be in control in someway. She got that control by maintaining her own composure.

“It’s all right. I mean, it’s not changing much about us… except the part I don’t like much anyway,” Trin replied. She was lying a bit. She did not mind kissing Shego or making out or even the occasional grope from the older female, but she took comfort in knowing that nothing else would change now that they had “broken up.” She could live with that, especially if it meant her sister was happy. 

“You know you like it,” Shego teased, clicking her tongue a couple of times. “Well, I guess I’m going to go tell Kimmie how I feel about her.”

“You do know she’s pretty straight,” Trin pointed out. 

“And you hate being touched. What the hell do these things have to do with me?” the villainess remarked.

“You’re also probably going to have to change. First and foremost, Kim isn’t going to be with a criminal. Beyond that, Kim isn’t going to accept some ambiguous relationship with you. I wouldn’t let her do something like that, anyway,” Trin commented. Her sister deserved the best in every way and she would never let Kim settle. 

Shego chuckled a bit. It was strange that Trin had such high standards for her sister, but not herself, especially since she thought so highly of herself. “I know. Look, Drakken’s been screwing up left and right lately. If he keeps going, he might end up killing himself, me, Kim, and everyone else around, which I’m not in favor of.” 

“Especially that whole ‘killing you’ part, huh?”

“Damn right, so I might be ready to settle down… somewhat. I mean, I’d still have you to kick around, which would be fun,” Shego quipped with a smile.

The college student nodded. “That’s good, but I think I’ll be kicking you around. If anything, I’ll introduce you to Shin and maybe you could kick him around.”

“Okay, well, I’m going to get going before he gets back. I’ve got some work ahead of me, after all,” Shego pointed out.

Trin nodded because Shego truly had some work ahead of her, especially if Kim was straight. The raven-haired woman left the same way that she came in and Trin was again alone. It was just her, the silence, and the fact that she had been left for her little sister.

She hoped Shego took care of Kim, even though she had no doubt the villainess would do just that. After all, Shego would not talk about changing and everything if she was not serious because Shego was typically proud of what she did.

“And, I think I have something of my own to work on.” Trin rubbed the center of her chest with two fingers for a moment.

-8-8-8-8-

Trin was taken from her sleep by Shin crawling into her bed. She turned to him to look at him like the mad man she knew he was. He had the nerve to be settling into the pillow. She had to glance at his body to make sure the jerk was not in his street clothes while he was being suicidal. No, he was in his pajamas, which meant he was not so drunk he did not know where his room was.

“Shin, what time is it?” Trin inquired. It was a leading question.

“Six,” he answered with a contented sigh, his eyes closed as if he planned to go to sleep where he was.

“Why in the hell did you wake me up at six in the morning?” she demanded. 

“Because I need to tell you something,” he replied. His breath smelled like beer and other things too disgusting to contemplate. 

“And this couldn’t wait until breakfast?” It was not like breakfast was eons away. All he had to do was wait two hours.

“Nope.” 

“Well, tell me and then go get in your own bed,” she commanded.

“I can’t. I need you to wash my pillows.” 

“Shin, you did not throw up on your bed. Tell me that, please,” she begged. She liked to say she drew the line at things she would launder for him, but she had cleaned up his puke too many times for her to even lie to herself about that.

He groaned, as if he was pained. “Fine, I won’t tell you, but you need to wash my pillows.” 

She scowled. She needed more sleep, if only to forget this for as long as possible. “You are a nasty ass. Fine, go to sleep, don’t molest me, and tell me the news over breakfast.” She did not feel like dealing with him at the moment considering the day she just had. 

“I won’t molest you. I’m pretty sure I’m gay,” he informed her.

“Good for you, now go to sleep,” she ordered. She noted she was getting way too much news for one day.

“I’m going to tell my girlfriend in person…” he trailed off, letting Trin know he had fallen asleep in mid-sentence. He was worn out thanks to a night on the town. Trin wished she could sleep so easily.

Trin sighed and hoped to the high heavens that Shin did not throw up on her bedspread like he did his own. She had always had a feeling about Shin being homosexual. He thought about it way too often and seemed to just be trying to ignore it with a series of meaningless girlfriends. She was a bit surprised he had ignored it, though.

Shin was usually all for finding out things about himself, especially things that would set him apart from the mainstream and something that would bother people. She could already see him trying to make up for lost time because that was the kind of guy he was. She just wondered how he would use this newfound information to annoy her, as she knew that was coming.

“Or maybe he already did since I now have to wash pillows,” she groaned.

-*-(New day)-*-

Tatsu grabbed her keys along with her resolve and headed out the door of her tiny home. She was going to see Shin, unannounced of all things. She knew there was a chance of him not being there, but she would wait. She had to tell him face to face. He deserved that much.

So, she drove the few hours to his apartment. She knew where he lived, even though she had never been. She actually knew a lot about Shin, but that did not mean they were a good couple. It just meant he liked to talk, mostly about himself since she hardly ever added in and he was rather conceited.

Upon arrival, a blonde woman greeted Tatsu at the door. She knew Shin lived with a woman he affectionately called a “harpy,” a “shrew,” and “his evil twin” among other names. He also stated many times she was a lesbian, as if to ease any fears Tatsu might have about him living with a female. It still bothered her a bit, so he also pointed out she was like a sister to him, but that did not help matters since Trin was not actually his sister. Seeing her now, Tatsu could not believe Shin was just roommates with her. Maybe he was as crazy as he seemed.

“Hello, can I do something for you?” Trin asked in an almost professional tone.

“Hi… um… I’m Tatsu… Shin’s girlfriend. I was hoping to see him,” Tatsu explained.

“Oh, all right. He’s not here right now and I’m not totally sure when he’ll get back, but he should be coming in sometime tonight. You can wait for him inside,” Trin said and she motioned for the mechanic to enter her home.

Tatsu nodded and entered the apartment. Trin shut the door behind Tatsu. Trin could hardly help thinking Tatsu was the last girl that she thought Shin would date. Shin typically picked up wild girls, in order to bug out with them more often than not. Tatsu seemed rather reserved, even in the black jumpsuit. She looked like the mechanic she was with her clothing, but there was something about her mannerisms that just said she was far from the party girl Shin typically was with. 

Tatsu went into the living room and looked around. She was surprised Shin lived some place so nice. The wooden floor was polished and clean. Actually, everything was in order. Shin was chaotic, not organized, so she guessed his evil twin was the one who kept the place looking so presentable.

“Well, Tatsu, my name is Trin. I’m Shin’s better half. Would you like anything while you wait?” Trin inquired.

Tatsu shook her head, declining for reasons beyond her. Trin shrugged and sat down on the couch with a book, as she usually did when Shin went out. Tatsu sat down in an armchair and immediately noted how comfortable it was. They were silent for a while, which they both appreciated. 

Tatsu was surprised Trin did not try to fill the air with talk. Shin loved to do that and she had noticed girls liked to do that. Trin did not even look up from her book. Eventually, Trin got up and Tatsu watched her go to the kitchen. 

“Would you like some tea or hot chocolate?” Trin offered and Tatsu shook her head as an answer.

Trin studied the guest for a moment. Partially in disbelief that this woman gave Shin the time of day to be considered his girlfriend and partially because she liked to figure things out and sometimes people counted. Tatsu did not seem like the type of person to fall for Shin’s typical… charm, she supposed most people thought it was anyway. How had Shin managed to get her to agree to be with him?

“Are you sure? I’m going to make some anyway,” Trin said. 

“Um…” Tatsu clutched her knees and glanced away. “Okay…” Tatsu answered as if she was not sure.

“Well, which do you want?” Trin asked politely. Tatsu seemed almost bashful, which she thought was utterly adorable for some reason that was beyond her. Maybe it was because Tatsu did not seem like the type to be shy, not sitting there in her coveralls with the top undone and showing off a white tank top with her muscular upper body. 

“It doesn’t matter,” Tatsu mumbled.

Trin shrugged and she went to make herself some tea. She made Tatsu some hot chocolate because she thought the mechanic might enjoy it. Usually, she would not care about something that someone else enjoyed, but it was Shin’s girlfriend and she was used to being hospitable on the rare occasions when she was playing host to someone… unless that someone was Shego anyway. Hey, her parents had taught her some manners and it was nice to use them every now and then. 

She returned to the living room a few minutes later with two mugs in her hands, one crowned with a thick swirl of whipped cream. She put them both down on the coffee table, on top of coasters of course. She went back into the kitchen and came back with a plate of cookies, enough for two people.

“Enjoy,” Trin said to Tatsu.

Tatsu nodded and waited to see which cup Trin would take. Trin took her cup of tea and a cookie. Tatsu then took the hot chocolate and sipped it to see just how hot it was. She found it to be a suitable temperature for drinking and then she decided to have a cookie. She was not sure what kind of cookie it was, but she was willing to try it. 

“This is good…” Tatsu mumbled, more to herself than Trin.

“They’re shortbread cookies,” Trin said, her favorite type of cookie.

“They’re really good and so’s the hot chocolate. Thank you,” the mechanic replied with a glob of cookie in her mouth.

Trin nodded, but did not say anything more. They sat there silently for a little while longer until Trin asked Tatsu if she would like anything for dinner. Trin was going to call out for something to eat because she had not planned on cooking since Shin was out.

Tatsu tried to decline, thinking she had already been enough of a pest, but Trin was not looking to hear any of that while she was in her friendly-mode. She ran down the menu of the restaurant that she would order from just for Tatsu. Tatsu sighed and gave in. 

“Anything with baked chicken and rice is okay,” Tatsu said. 

Trin nodded. “Thank you. Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

Tatsu sighed and ducked her head. “I just don’t wanna be a pest or in your way.”

“Oh, believe me, at this point, if I could trade you for Shin, I would. Just the fact that you don’t need constant attention and acknowledgment is a plus. If you can do your own laundry, I’ll move him out myself for you,” Trin remarked. 

Tatsu barely laughed, but a little snort escaped her nose. They went back to being quiet as they waited for their food. It did not take too long and Trin paid for everything since she practically forced Tatsu to order.

Over the meal, the pair got to talking because Tatsu really liked the food and was curious about the restaurant. She wanted to know if there was one in Middleton, which there was. Trin gave up all of the information, but they continued on talking after that, making to several different topics. They lost track of time and were surprised when Shin finally did come in.

“Whoa, Tatsu,” Shin said in surprise when he caught sight of his girlfriend.

“Hey,” Tatsu replied, slowly turning her attention from Trin to Shin.

“You must read minds just like me and my shrew. I was going to come see you tomorrow,” Shin explained as he walked into the living room. 

Tatsu shrugged. “Saved you the trip.”

“I wish you didn’t. I know you hate driving,” he pointed out. Yes, he had some manners and used them on occasion. 

“I’m glad I did. It’s shocking you ever make it to Middleton with the way you drive,” Tatsu murmured.

“Touché,” Shin conceded with a laugh while noticing his evil twin was easing out of the room. He went and sat down where Trin had been as Tatsu watched the blonde exit the room.

“Shin, we need to talk,” Tatsu said.

Shin sighed. “Yeah, we do. Let me go first since I usually do most of the talking anyway. Tatsu, you’re a cool person. In fact, you’re actually my favorite girlfriend, even though you never want to go out with me unless it’s to some races. And I suspect that’s because I’m purposely annoying, so I don’t hold it against you. There’s something just cool about you. So, I’m not doing this because I don’t like you. I do, but I need to break up with you.” 

It would have surprised Trin to hear him speak in such a gentle manner, even though he was still being his usual blunt self. Shin was not well known for the soft approach. In there was not a way to bulldoze through something, he would just make it up as he went along, so Tatsu had to mean something to him.

Tatsu nodded, but did not have much of an outward reaction. “That’s cool. I was going to break up with you, too.” 

“Yeah? Can I ask why?” Shin inquired since he was not accustomed to girls breaking things off with him.

She shrugged. “I’ve been cheating on you,” she answered as if it was nothing.

Blowing out a breath, he scratched his head. “Yeah, I thought as much. I thought it might be something else, but cheating was the first thing that came to mind for me. For a long time?”

“A couple of months.”

“That makes sense. I don’t hold it against you. I mean, I don’t live in the same town as you and I hardly come visit you and when I do, I want to go out and do things you hate. I hope the other guy is better to you than that.”

Tatsu shrugged again for lack of a better thing to do. Kim actually was much better than Shin, but she would have to let Kim go, too. At least her conscience would leave her alone, even though she would be all alone when everything was said and done.

“How come you’re breaking up with me?” Tatsu inquired. She wondered if he had something going on with the rather friendly, curvy blonde he lived with. She could see why he would leave her for Trin.

“Well, turns out that me and that harpy that just left have way more in common than we thought. I’ve finally figured out that I’m gay,” he declared quite proudly, puffing out his chest and sticking his chin in the air.

“How long have you been trying to figure that out?” she asked. She could not be mad at him for that since she had been carrying on with Kim.

“Hmm… good question.” He scratched his chin. “It might’ve been ever since I hit puberty. I don’t know. It’s always kinda been there, but I tried to ignore it and thought it would go away, but it’s not. So, can we still hang out?” 

“For races,” she answered. She did not do much else with him and had little desire to anyway. 

“I figured as much. One day, I’m going to figure out how to drag you to a club. I mean, if I can get that damned shrew to go out every now and then, I can get anybody to do it. Hey, since we’re still cool for the most part, you should stay here for the night and get a fresh start for Middleton in the morning. Trust me, the pancakes the shrew makes alone will be enough for you to be happy you stayed,” Shin said.

“Um…” She was not too sure if his roommate would be happy about that. “She’s already kinda done enough for me. I don’t want be a pest.”

“No, don’t argue. You won’t be. It’ll be fine. I’ll get you a pillow and cover and you can sleep on the sofa,” he said. He would never occur to him to offer his bed to his guest.

Tatsu opened her mouth to protest again, but Shin strolled off before she had the chance. He went into Trin’s room and snatched the pillow that she leaned against, causing her to fall back and then he started grabbing her comforter. She was so incredulous to his behavior that she was speechless for almost a half-a-minute. 

“What the entire hell are you doing?” Trin inquired.

“Got to make our guest comfortable,” Shin answered, as if that was obvious. 

Sighing, Trin knew she would regret this, but she had to ask. “What do you mean?”

“Tatsu’s going to stay the night. Cool?”

“Oh…” Trin thought on it for a moment. She did not see anything wrong with that, but she did not understand why he needed her things. “Okay, but why are you taking my pillow and blanket?”

“She’s camping out on the sofa.” 

“Why? Why doesn’t she sleep in your bed?”

“Because I’m sleeping there.”

“So what? She’s your girlfriend,” Trin pointed out.

“Not anymore. We just mutually broke up with each other. Apparently, she was cheating on me and I’m gay,” Shin informed his best friend.

Trin did not even know what to say and decided against trying. She conceded the pillow and blanket to him, if only to get rid of him that very moment. She lay down and went to sleep herself.

-8-8-8-8-

Next time: the end, so everything should be in order by then.


	7. Connections

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own these characters, except for Trin, Shin, and Tatsu. The rest belong to Disney.

7: Connections

Shego decided on writing Kim an email, having gotten the address from Kim’s website. She hoped the little nerd who ran the website was not actually the person the emails went to. She had gone with this option because it was easier than trying to go talk to Kim, who would probably just assume she had shown up for a fight or she was just messing with Kim, even though she had saved Kim’s life not too long ago. Kim had freaked when she woke up after that snow incident, but she calmed down eventually and they left the cabin on their usual terms. 

She was also pretty certain Kim opened all of her emails in case it was an emergency of some kind. With Kim being as active as she was, an emergency could be just about anything anywhere. So, she just had to hope Kim did not delete any later ones once she figured out who it was that contacting her.

“Would it kill her to just reply to one so I don’t go out of my mind wondering?” Shego asked the ceiling of her hotel room. She was laid out on the bed, in nothing but a robe with her laptop next to her. “Although, I have to already be out of whatever mind I have left.

At first, she had been incredulous as she sent a couple of emails. But, every time she had that feeling, she remembered pulling Kim’s almost blue body out of the snow and spooning the girl to warm her up. She had never felt such emotion in her life. The only thing that matched it was when that comet had hit her and her brothers. She had been the first one to regain consciousness when that happened and she swore her brothers had died. Yeah, they annoyed her, but they were still her brothers and to think they were dead for the longest minute in her life was the worst feeling she had ever had. She would never forget it and now she carried that with Kim as well.

“This should be all right. After all, I won her sister over and Trin is definitely the more difficult Possible,” she said. With that in mind, she sat up and snatched up her laptop, ready to write something new.

She felt some confidence in her cause as she wrote things to the hero. She figured Kim would talk things out with Trin eventually. With luck, Trin would at least endorse her while, of course, making sure Kim knew better than to take any b.s. from her. Even though she had broken off whatever they had together, she was pretty sure Trin would inform Kim that it was safe to give her a chance.

“I guess meeting that crazy blonde might actually work out in my favor,” Shego chuckled and shook her head. It was hard to believe that, but she did.

-8-8-8-8-

Tatsu could not believe the breakfast Trin prepared, but it seemed like Shin expected no less. He actually complained about the food and Trin threatened him with all kinds of things, poisoned dinner being high on the list. Tatsu sat quietly, watching the two go back and forth and she almost could not believe they were not a couple.

“Shin, do you want me to give you some unnecessary surgery?” Trin inquired, holding up a carving knife.

“I dunno, do you want to find your glasses unnecessary?” he countered, holding up a pair of needle shuriken.

It was these interactions that allowed Tatsu to see that they really were more like extremely insane siblings. She finished the breakfast that had been laid out before her, which had been light, fluffy pancakes, scrambled eggs with cheese (Shin’s favorite way to have eggs), sausage, and a small bowl of assorted fruits on the side. She wished she could eat like that every morning.

“Um… thanks for everything,” Tatsu said as she got up from the table and was about to leave.

“No problem,” Trin replied.

The mechanic was very grateful for everything, but really did not have the vocabulary at the moment to express that. She had a feeling it was not really necessary, even though she would have liked to express it. But, she did not want to make a fool of herself. She quietly left the apartment with Trin showing her to the door. She practically bowed when she bid Trin farewell and then hustled away as a blush burned her cheeks. Trin went to finish her food and eyed Shin curiously.

“What do you want, beast-girl?” Shin inquired since he could tell there was something on her mind. He focused mostly on his meal rather than on her, though. He was on his third helping of everything.

“Would it bother you at all if I were to ask Tatsu out?” Trin asked bluntly.

Shin dropped his fork, but his mouth stayed open. Trin did not typically ask girls out. She led them on and waited for them to make that leap, just like she waited for them to break up with her. She was weird in that regard as far as he was concerned.

He started to consider the possibilities of her going out with Tatsu and he doubted it would work out. His evil twin and Tatsu did not have anything in common, not a single thing. Nothing whatsoever in his opinion. He decided against saying something like that and just went with pointing out the obvious.

“Tatsu’s straight as far as I know,” Shin answered.

“As far as you knew, you were straight less than forty-eight hours ago,” she remarked.

“Hey, it was more than forty-eight hours, okay,” he defended himself.

“I don’t care if it was forty-eight seconds ago. Would it bother you if I asked her out?” Trin asked again.

“I think she’s in a relationship,” Shin commented.

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

He knew it did not answer her question, but he always had a good time being evasive, especially with her. It got on her nerves so much. He thought on her question, seriously thought on it. And, just the question, not if his evil twin and former flame were compatible. Would it bother him if Trin asked Tatsu out?

It actually would not bother him at all if she went out with Tatsu, if that were possible anyway. Trin was a good girlfriend, after all, except for her dislike for touching. He supposed he would not care since Tatsu would have a caring mate for a while, someone spoiling her the way he never could. And then, she would undoubtedly eventually break up with Trin for the same reason all girls did. And then, he and Trin’s lives would go on as usual.

“It wouldn’t bother me any more than on those rare occasions that you have a girlfriend. Which reminds me, don’t you have a girlfriend?” the half-Japanese male inquired with a cocked eyebrow.

“She broke up with me,” Trin reported in a dull voice. Her pride was still smarting over the fact that Shego had broken things off with her as far as their inside play went. But, she supposed she was happy for her sister. She had gotten to know Shego fairly well over the months they had spent time with each other.

Shego was not the type to pour her heart out over something, so it was big for her to just admit she probably loved Kim. She was also a person who liked what she liked and she did what she liked, which included pestering Trin with physical attention. For her to suggest they stop before she even knew how Kim would respond to her affections was tremendous. It was something that could blow up in her face and she would not have anything to fall back on. As far as her personal life went, Shego did not like working without a net, but she was doing that now.

“Hey, why do you want to go out with Tatsu anyway?” Shin inquired, twisting his mouth up a little before he shoved some eggs in his face.

“Well, we had a really nice talk last night,” Trin answered. She had enjoyed Tatsu’s company and that was a strange thing for her. Usually, she was the very picture of a misanthrope. She would like to see if it meant something or if it was just a hiccup in life.

“You do know she’s a mechanic right? Not up to your usual standards.” His evil twin was all about intellectuals, fellow college students or other geniuses she met while doing conferences with her parents. “She dresses like that all time, she doesn’t know any chemicals, and doesn’t act all intellectual and whatnot,” he added.

She rolled her eyes. He knew she was not that shallow. “If you don’t want me to ask her, I won’t.”

“I didn’t say that. I just don’t think she’s your type, but hey, go for it,” he declared with a shrug, not knowing what he might be starting obviously.

Trin nodded. She would go for it. They had the last of their finals in a couple of days and then they were going to go home for the summer. She would get to see Kim graduate high school in a couple of months, too, which would be great. And maybe, she would have a girlfriend for a little while, a girlfriend who offered interesting conversation. She never expected to have a girlfriend for more than a couple of months and, often, she doubted she would want one for longer than that. 

-8-8-8-8-

Tatsu got home and guessed it was time to release Kim, too. The very thought drew a deep sigh, hurting her chest. She would miss the spirited redhead, but she had to do what she had to do. She hoped things went as well with Kim as they did with Shin, even though she doubted it. After all, Kim was already gay, so that one was not going to come up to save her hide.

She sighed again and she called Kim to see if she could come over. Kim was the only person she ever called for recreational purposes. Everyone else got calls in regards to their cars or things like that. She guessed it was going to be her last phone call that did not involve business. It was actually saddening.

“Gonna be alone forever…” she muttered, feeling a sting in her heart. The word _worthless_ echoed through her head.

Kim arrived, smiling bright as the sun as usual. She gave Tatsu an enthusiastic hug and a peck on the mouth as a greeting. Tatsu felt like such an ass as she accepted those things. A lump formed in her throat and a stone settled in her stomach. How could she hurt someone who cared so much about her? The mechanic felt beyond awful and it was visible on her face, which was rare.

“Hey, sweetie, what’s wrong?” Kim asked because of the downtrodden look in Tatsu’s entrancing ice blue eyes.

“I have to tell you something,” Tatsu mumbled, worse than usual. She put her head down and rubbing her forehead with the heel of her palm as if it would help her feel better, but it did no such thing.

“What? What’s wrong?” Kim asked again, placing her hand on Tatsu’s shoulder for support.

“Kim, you’re just about the only person I ever met in life that I like being around for a long time. I wish I did this right and that way I wouldn’t feel so screwed up…” Sighing, Tatsu’s shoulders slumped and she shrugged off Kim’s hand.

Kim did not take the hint and simply moved her hand to Tatsu’s bicep. “What? What did you do?” she inquired in a gentle tone.

Tatsu took a deep breath and tried to speak, but the lump in her throat made it very hard. Closing her mouth, she took another deep breath, but through her nose this time. She released it slowly and forced herself to look at Kim. _She deserves this and you brought this pain on yourself_ _because you’re so damned stupid_. 

“All the time we’ve been going out, I had a boyfriend…” Tatsu admitted. Her eyes were stricken and looked like she had shattered internally.

“What?” Kim gasped and backed away, putting her hand to her chest. Suddenly, it was hard for her to breathe. 

“He didn’t come around often. He lives in another city. We broke up last night. I wish that could be it. I wish it was so easy…” the mechanic mumbled more so than usual, but the hero understood her words.

Kim squinted, studying the mechanic. She thought she knew Tatsu so well. She never expected this level of betrayal. “What do you mean?” Tears welled up in her eyes as she felt collapsed in on herself and her chest burned, like she was drowning. She hoped she misunderstood what was going on.

Tatsu shook her head. “I need to let you go, too, Kim. It’s only right. You deserve someone so much better than me. I wasn’t honest with you or anything about this, so this has to be it.”

“You make it sound so simple…” Kim whispered, looking absolutely destroyed in her olive eyes, which crushed Tatsu.

The mechanic nervously played with her hands. She felt like such a worthless wretch, unworthy of any company she might enjoy. She then suddenly began hitting herself in the head with her palm. This was an old habit from childhood when she did something so obviously stupid that even she recognized it for what it was. 

“It’s my fault. I’m sorry. I’m so stupid…” Tatsu mumbled so badly that Kim did not understand her at all. Each hit to her head echoed loudly through the garage.

“Stop it,” Kim begged, putting her up hands, like she was about to stop Tatsu, but she was worried about making this worse. Tatsu just continued on, hitting herself undoubtedly hard.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” the raven-haired female murmured. Everyone was right about her. She was just so stupid. That was why she could not make it through high school, that was why her parents had never paid her much mind, and that was why she was going to lose Kim.

“Tatsu!” Kim grabbed Tatsu’s hand to get her to stop. She held the offensive attachment tightly to make sure that Tatsu did not abuse herself anymore.

“I’m so sorry I did this to us,” Tatsu apologized. It sounded like a sob and tears stung her eyes, but she held them at bay. Her stomach twisted and she felt like she might throw up.

“It’s okay. We could work through it,” Kim offered, tears sneaking out of her eyes. She said that more for how distressed the older female was than the fact that she believed they could survive as a couple after Tatsu confessed to two-timing, but she was not totally sure.

Tatsu shook her head like crazy. “No, we can’t. You shouldn’t trust me anymore. If I could do something like this to someone I like, what kind of person does that make me? I want you to be with someone better than me. You deserve so much better than me.”

“Tatsu…” Kim was not sure what to say. She liked to think they could work through it all, because Tatsu was the type of person to say something like that. But, maybe Tatsu had a point.

Tatsu had been having an affair with her. Tatsu had made her the other woman. She had been so good to Tatsu. She could not figure out what she had done to make Tatsu do something like this to her. And even though Tatsu seemed all choked up and sincere now, she might go out and do it again. Maybe they did need to just call it quits now, but she would hate to leave Tatsu feeling so horrible.

“You deserve so much better,” Tatsu sniffled and then her tears came. 

Kim felt bad on two levels now. She was crushed that Tatsu had done this to her, but she was also pained by Tatsu’s agony. How could Tatsu do this, hurt them both so much? 

“Then, why did you do this?” Kim asked, wiping her eyes to no avail.

“I’m just so stupid,” Tatsu replied.

Kim knew this was the most answer she would ever get from Tatsu. It was probably more than most got. “Was I not enough?”

“I was with him first and just never told you because I didn’t think about him much. You were more than enough. You made me forget about him,” Tatsu replied, trying to force out a laugh. It came out as a hiccup. She rubbed her eye with the heel of her hand, making it redder than the crying did.

Kim was not sure what to say to that. She hid her face in her hands and cried. Tatsu took her into an awkward hug. She let her. Even now, she felt some weird form of comfort in Tatsu. Kim clutched onto Tatsu and reached up to wipe away Tatsu’s tears.

The now ex-couple took a few minutes trying to make each other feel better. It was odd for both of them. Tatsu did not think she was worth the time for Kim to even try to cheer her up. Kim would like to leave as soon as she could as this hurt her to the core of her being. She felt like her soul had been shredded.

Once Kim left, Tatsu just went to work. She figured she would do the only thing that brought her joy now, fixing vehicles. It would be able to keep her out of trouble and keep her from hurting anyone else, which was fine by her.

-*-(New day)-*-

Kim was eager for the day to end. Her sister was coming home and she had a lot of things she needed to talk about, most of those things having to do with emails she kept getting from a certain green-skinned villainess. She did not know what to do, especially since having her heart broken recently. She hoped Trin had some answers for her. But, she was going to have to wait until the blonde showed up.

Trin had made a detour when she got into Middleton. She had come alone; Shin wanted to do some end-of-school partying with some new associates, so he would come along in a week or so… or so he claimed. That was not her problem, though. She went to visit Tatsu, finding the mechanic elbow deep in the hood of a car.

“Excuse me,” Trin called in, knocking on the side door that was open to let in some air.

Tatsu turned to see who was there. “You…” Her eyes went wide as she caught sight of the blonde female. She almost banged her head on the hood on the car, but remembered just in time to avoid making a complete ass out of herself.

“Hello again. Quite the space you have here,” Trin commented as she looked around. There were three cars parked in the garage area with a workbench up against a wall. 

Tatsu frowned slightly and did not respond, thinking Trin was making fun of her. She really did not need this at the moment. She still felt terrible from her breakup with Kim. She did not want company of any kind, especially if that company was going to try to belittle her.

Trin took note of Tatsu’s cold shoulder, but pressed on. She truly wanted to get to know Tatsu better. They had gotten along quite well for the short time that they had been together. She would like to see if that was just a fluke.

“I was wondering if you’re not busy tonight, perhaps you’d like to join me for dinner? I know quite the nice restaurant,” Trin said. She knew a good restaurant that she thought the mechanic would like since Tatsu had enjoyed the dinner they had in the apartment. It was also a place she would not be stared at or bothered by local Middleton assholes.

“So?” Tatsu replied, practically biting Trin’s head off with that one word.

Trin took the blow and just stood stronger. Nothing worth having was gained easily, after all. “I thought you would enjoy it.”

“I wouldn’t,” Tatsu replied.

“Are you sure?”

“Could you just leave?” the mechanic huffed.

Trin scowled at being ordered around, but she did not have time to screw around. Besides, she could take a hint. Apparently, the time at the apartment was a fluke.

Trin planned to pick up Kim from school, so she turned and left. But, things were not done by far in her opinion. Tatsu flinched as the blonde slammed the door loudly. Tatsu actually had to look to make sure it had not fallen off its hinges.

Tatsu sighed. “That’s that.” She thought she would feel better with Trin gone, but she did not. Her stomach twisted and turned to the point she feared she might throw up.

To ignore the feeling, Tatsu returned to her business inside of the car. It was about as distracting as it had been before, which was not very. Minutes after she left, Tatsu’s phone went off and she answered without looking at it.

“What?” Tatsu snarled, annoyed by the interruption.

“Man, you sound pissy. Did the harpy make it to you yet?” Shin inquired.

“Harpy?”

“Trin,” he clarified. He called because he had to know what happened and he knew Trin would not tell him without him being able to pester her in person, which he would only be able to do in about a week.

“Oh…” she sort of grunted the word out. “Yeah.”

“Cool. So, did you accept her offer or did you bust her little pink bubble by telling her you’re straight and with a dude?”

“Huh?”

“She asked you out, right?” he asked.

“Oh… yeah.”

“Did you accept or what?” he inquired.

“No…” she answered. She was serious about that? Why the hell would someone like Trin seriously ask her out?

“Why not? Because of the other boyfriend?”

“I’m single now,” she found herself telling him. “I didn’t accept.”

“What? And you’re single? Is it because you’re straight then?” he pressed, like he really needed to know.

“No…” she answered. This was a weird conversation. Why would her ex-boyfriend be so invested in her dating the roommate he had a weird relationship with? How weird was their relationship exactly?

“Well, then why?”

“I just don’t want to be bothered now,” Tatsu informed him.

“Look, Tatsu, I don’t know what happened with you and not wanting to be bothered, but if you’re single and not against going out with women, you really should take the harpy up on her offer. Trust me, she doesn’t usually offer, but when she does, you really need to take her up on it. She likes you and you’d like her company, plus she pays for everything,” he remarked.

“I don’t know…” she replied hesitantly. Trin had been nice for the day they sat together, but she did not think that meant anything.

“Trust me, if you two got along while you were here, you’ll like going out with her. So, you really should give it a try. I bet it’ll clear up your pissy attitude. If anything, you get free food and drinks out of her and maybe some good conversation, since apparently you two managed to have that, not that I understand how. Anyway, just think about it for a while and then call her up and tell her you changed your mind. With luck, the offer is still out there,” he quipped, which was not making her feel much better.

“I don’t have her number,” she pointed out.

“I’ll give it to you,” he declared proudly. He felt like he was helping and that made him feel good. Well, helping when it came to people he was close to. He was not a fan of helping in general. He thought if nothing else, going out with Trin would get Tatsu out of whatever funk she was in and Trin would have a girlfriend to shower her odd affections on for the summer while he ran around doing fun stuff. Come fall term, everything would go back to normal, though. Well, that was what he thought anyway.

-8-8-8-8-

Kim was glad to see Trin and she was ready to confess something rather heavy to her older sister. She managed to hold it in until they got home and let everyone get through their welcomes. She then dragged Trin to her room and paced for a moment. She was so confused she needed to tell someone and so, she told Trin. After all, they told each other everything.

“So… Shego’s being weird and trying to, like, woo me through the Internet. It’s weird, but a good weird because it’s working, but it’s still weird. You want to see?” Kim was already pulling Trin to her computer.

Trin sighed as she read the emails, almost ten altogether, but not very repetitive. Shego was obviously no romantic, which she knew already, but at least she got her point across. She was also very honest about her feelings. The tone of the messages conveyed just how deeply Shego’s emotions ran for Kim.

“Well, Mini-me, it would seem the ball is in your court. Now, are you or are you not interested in exploring her feelings with her?” Trin asked, leaning back in the desk chair.

“I don’t know…” Kim replied in an unsure tone, throwing herself onto her bed. She stared at the ceiling and sighed. She had thought about Shego a lot thanks to the emails and also about how Shego saved her life. It meant a lot to her, she realized.

“Well, until you know, this is going to be quite the dull conversation,” Trin pointed out.

Kim sat up enough to look at her sister. “Do you think I should?”

“Don’t you like taking chances?” the blonde countered blandly.

“But, she’s a criminal.”

“She’s expressed a willingness to change for you, so that’s not the best argument. If she’s willing to try, shouldn’t you have faith?” Trin asked.

“What if she’s lying?” Kim countered.

“We can all possibly be lying. Yes, some more likely than others. She’s invested a lot of time and effort into this lie if that is the case. Even if it might be, you’ve expressed an interest, which is why this is on your mind. Are you going to let that go?”

Kim nibbled her bottom lip briefly. “But, if it’s a trick, she could go around saying… things about me.”

Trin waved that off. “People say things all the time, whether they’re true or not.” It was unfortunate that other people’s opinions mattered to Kim.

Nodding, Kim glanced away, fiddling her fingers together. “Trin… would you care if I was… um… a…” She could not get the question out. It was one of the things that kept her from moving forward with the decision on her current situation. What would her sister say about her now that she had shown her so much?

“Mini-me, between the two of us, I understand exactly where you’re coming from,” the elder female replied. She was still very much in the closet. She did not see the point in coming out since her girlfriends did not last long. And, maybe she was a little nervous about how her family might react.

Kim’s eyes went wide and for a moment she could not make words. She could hardly believe those implications. “You’re a…”

Trin nodded. “I am. And in my professional opinion, I think you should give this a try. If it is a trick, you know Shin and I have your back and we would all make her pay dearly for such a thing.”

“I don’t like you hurting people,” Kim reminded Trin.

“Well, I don’t like people hurting you,” Trin riposted.

The redhead sighed. “So, you think I should try?”

“I do. While there is a chance that it is a trick, there’s also a chance that she’s being sincere. What if she’s being sincere?”

Kim nodded. Trin left Kim to think of what they talked about. As soon as the blonde got into her bedroom, her phone went off. She checked to see who was calling, but did not recognize the phone number. She answered anyway and it turned out to be Tatsu. It would seem the mechanic had changed her mind. Trin had to think on that, pride stung yet again, but still curious. She accepted, despite being upset with being brushed off before.

“Just know there will not be a third time,” Trin decided to say. She was no one’s yo-yo.

“No, no, no. I understand,” Tatsu replied. “Thanks for accepting this time, actually.” 

“As I said, there will not be a third.” Of course, there might not be a now if she continued speaking like this and Trin knew that.

“I didn’t mean to be such an ass before. It’s just been rough lately,” Tatsu stated. 

“Tell me about it.”

Realizing this was not rhetorical, Tatsu explained she was having a bad few days… well, no, couple of weeks now and she had taken that out on Trin. The college student accepted that and then explained she might have a situation of her own soon, so she would like to move their date to next week. Tatsu accepted. It would give her time to get her head together.

Trin was right to postpone her date since she would barely have time to think. A couple of days later, Kim decided she would like to see if Shego was serious, so Trin had to help plot and plan for that to be possible. She called Shin and they came up with an idea to “rescue” Shego from not only Drakken’s madness, but also from the arms of any systems of justice that might be looking to take her down. Trin and Shin sighed; the things they did for Kim.

“You know, I actually think _she’ll_ be the death of us one day instead of me,” Shin remarked. 

Trin wished she could argue that. “At least with her, I can die happy. With you, I get to go to Hell pissed off.”

“That’ll happen anyway since you’ll be going to Hell with me.” Once again, she wished she could argue that. 

-8-8-8-8-

Epilogue: The Right Way 

After a trying time of getting Global Justice to plea bargain away any time in jail Shego would have had to serve by getting Shego to tell a few secrets of Drakken’s, everyone got a chance to take a breather. The so-called bargain for Shego to end up with probation for a few years was actually stacked in GJ’s favor as far as Trin was concerned. Mostly because come her next break from school, she and Shin would have to work for the bloody organization doing computer work and maybe even a few missions. She was irked, but she was fine with doing it. So far Kim seemed very happy with Shego.

It had been a very blissful summer for Kim and Shego, going on dates and just being sickeningly in love… or just sickening in Shego’s case as far as Trin was concerned. In fact, they lived together in the apartment down the hall. Kim now went to the same school as Trin and Shin.

Trin herself was now grossly enchanted with Tatsu, dating her and loving her, and making a better effort than Shin ever did to maintain the long distance relationship between the two of them. Tatsu seemed to truly appreciate the effort and did her best to return it, surprisingly romantic when motivated. Tatsu often sent Trin cards, flowers, or other little items to let Trin know she was in Tatsu’s thoughts and missed. Tatsu was definitely glad Shin talked her into that date with Trin a few months ago because Trin certainly did make her happy.

Shin was making up for lost time, as Trin suspected he would, when it came to his sexuality. He was wilder than ever now that he found out he was gay. A couple of times, Trin had walked in on him with a random male in the middle of the living room, much to her disgust. This was something that never happened when he was going out with girls. She hated he would do such things on her good furniture and her polished floors, like he ever cleaned anything! But, he seemed to love every second that he was able to get on her nerves and have a good time.

The one thing Shin started to notice was that his harpy seemed to be falling away from him. Slowly but surely, things with her were drifting more toward Tatsu. It was a bit upsetting for him since he was used to Trin being his and he sometimes threw fits about it, but she did not care. Eventually, he figured it out; his nutty shrew had fallen in love. 

“Oh, great,” Shin muttered to himself one day while watching Trin preparing for her six-month anniversary with Tatsu, making it by far the longest relationship she had ever been in. “I just pretty much gave her away,” he mumbled to himself. He had pretty much put Tatsu into Trin’s lap, which bothered him at the moment. She was supposed to be his evil twin, _his_.

He was quarantined in his room that night for Tatsu’s first visit to the apartment since she and Trin had become a couple. Trin would have liked for him to just go out, but he wanted some of the hot, delicious chicken dinner she made. So, they struck the deal that he could have some, as long as he stayed in his room for the entire night once Tatsu showed up. The morning was a different matter altogether, even though Tatsu was still there that morning.

-8-8-8-8-

“Hey, can we get some breakfast?” Shego shouted as she and Kim entered the apartment in the morning.

“Shego, if you picked that lock to get in, you know the harpy is going to eat you alive like the bird demon she is,” Shin remarked from the dining room table.

“Damn right I am,” Trin concurred from the kitchen.

Shego rolled her eyes. She and Trin got along pretty well when they interacted outside of sparring, much like Trin and Shin got along, though. They exchanged insults, barbs, and smart remarks. Trin nagged Shego on perceived bad habits, like she did with Shin, and Shego shot back with snide comments. It was just like they used to be actually, without the kissing and groping of the past.

“I used my key, sis,” Kim said to quell any fight that might arise because Trin seriously hated when Shego picked the door lock for the hell of it.

Trin did not respond and Kim and Shego walked over to the dining area. Kim looked into the kitchen and saw something decidedly weird, Tatsu. Tatsu was in her pajamas, in the kitchen with Trin, just hovering around the blonde. She noticed Kim and they both just started at each other. The world could not be _that_ small, they considered.

Kim’s reaction and Tatsu’s reaction to seeing each other did not go unnoticed. This was one of the problems with living with trained spies. They were asked about it by their significant others in private.

Shego could barely wait, asking Kim as soon as they stepped out of the apartment to run errands together. “What was that little thing between you and blondie’s little lapdog?”

Kim’s brow furrowed. “What thing? And don’t call her that.”

“That thing. You looked at each other and there was something there. You know what I’m talking about. Don’t play like you don’t.”

Sighing, Kim scratched her head. “We used to date.”

Emerald eyes went wide. “You used to…?” She could not even say the word. What the hell could Kim have ever seen in that mumbling mess of a mechanic?

Kim gave her a stern look. “Be nice.”

Shego threw her hands out. “I haven’t even said anything!”

“I know what you’re thinking and it’s not very nice. Tatsu is a great person. I’m just a little surprised to see her with Trin.”

“Why, because your big sis is all about the preppy girls?” Shego teased.

Kim scoffed. “Because Trin hates people and I can’t see how they would’ve met. Trin’s not exactly out going and Tatsu isn’t either.”

“How’d you meet her?”

“I literally ran into and freaked when I thought I spilled hot coffee on her.”

Shego laughed. “Smooth, Princess. Real smooth.”

Kim stuck her tongue out. “You’re just jealous you don’t know about my klutzy side and she does.”

Shego snorted. “I know you best of all.” She put her arm around Kim’s shoulder and dragged her into their apartment. And that was the issue for them, at least involving Tatsu.

-8-8-8-8- 

It was not so simple for Tatsu. Trin pulled her into the bedroom and just looked at her. Tatsu knew what it was about.

“I… uh… I… used to date Kim,” Tatsu confessed, rubbing her palms together.

“You…” Trin took a deep breath. She had not been expecting that answer of all things.

Tatsu decided to get it all out before Trin could grab that piece. If she was going to be yelled at, she wanted it to be for just one thing. If it was going to be worse, she wanted it over as soon as possible.

“I was dating Kim while I was still dating Shin. I was cheating with Kim and I hadn’t told her. I told her and broke up with her after Shin broke up with me,” Tatsu said, taking a deep breath, but she felt like she could not get any more air into her lungs. She was so certain Trin was going to break up with her and this was the last thing on Earth that she wanted.

Trin took in the information, keeping her usual calm demeanor about her, which did not make her girlfriend feel at ease. It did not help that Trin paced for just a moment and then stopped. Tatsu had been in a relationship with her sister? It was not as big a deal as Tatsu really thought. After knowing that Tatsu was in a relationship with Shin, who was like a brother to her, so her being with a sibling was not so odd, even if she was with them at the same time. Shin had not been much of a boyfriend, after all. Kim had probably been a relief in the desert of Shin. There were other implications, though.

“You’re not with me because I remind you of Kim, are you?” Trin asked, her heart in her throat. She was actually scared. This was an emotion she was so familiar with, but tried so hard to forget. She was frightened to know that she might have fallen in love with a woman that just wanted her because she could not have Kim. 

“No!” Tatsu practically roared, unable to deal with the shattered look in Trin’s eyes. How many people would she hurt and disappoint over this? “No, nothing like that. Hell, I didn’t even know she was your sister until today.”

“That doesn’t mean anything. I could still remind you of her. I could remind you of your ex.”

“But, that’s not it. You’re you and there’s no one like you. When I told you I love you last night, I meant it. I do love you. I liked being with Kim because she was the first person that tried to understand me and be nice to me, but I love you.”

Trin did not respond or move, but Tatsu did. The mechanic grabbed Trin into a tight hug and held onto her. She inhaled Trin’s wonderful scent like she was trying to take in her essence. Oh, god, she did not want to lose Trin. She honest and truly loved this woman.

“Please,” Tatsu whispered with a hitch in her throat. “Believe me like you did last night,” she begged, her voice breaking. “I can’t lose you. Believe me. Please.” How could stupidity of some months ago continue to ruin her life? A tear slid from her eye and landed on Trin’s bare arm.

Trin’s brain was jumpstarted as she felt that tear land on her, but she could only nod. She believed Tatsu. She could feel the desperation of the embrace felt and hear the conviction in her voice.

“I can’t be Kim,” Trin’s voice cracked. She could only be herself. She was not made to be anyone else. 

“I would never want you to be. You’re you and I love you,” Tatsu repeated. “Believe me.”

Trin somehow swallowed down the stone in her throat. “I do…” She did. 

So, Trin returned the hug, even though she still had a problem with hugging. Of course, this made the embrace even more special to Tatsu, who was aware of how Trin felt about hugging. Tatsu held on even tighter than before. There were some tears, which turned into laughs before silence reigned over the room.

“Just to let you know though, if you cheat on me…” Trin did not even finish the thought.

“Don’t worry, I’d never do something like that again, especially not to you. I love you so much and I never want to lose you,” Tatsu replied and she pushed herself up to kiss Trin on the lips; the blonde was taller than Tatsu. Trin returned the show of affection, as she believed Tatsu would remain faithful to her. Life was about taking chances anyway, she told herself.

-8-8-8-8-

Shego was going through something similar. She had felt the need to be honest after Kim confessed she had a relationship with Tatsu. Shego had actually came out and said she had “a thing” with Trin. She hesitated in calling it a relationship because she and Trin had not really considered it such. In all honesty, she had no clue what to consider what she had with Trin aside from “a thing.”

“Whoa, are you with me because I remind you of Trin then?” Kim inquired, taking a step back and almost falling over the coffee table.

“First of all, Princess, you don’t remind me of Trin at all, aside from the nagging anyway. You guys are like apples and oranges to me. No, actually, more like apples and cacti. I stopped the thing that me and Trin had because I figured out that I love you. I do love you and that’s that,” Shego stated soundly.

“That’s that?” Kim echoed, shaking her head. Some of the things that the former villainess let leave her mouth baffled her. That just did not sound like the proper way to end the discussion that they were having.

“Yeah, that’s that. I love you and I’m going to stick it out with you, so stop arguing with me and stop trying to pick a fight,” the pale woman replied.

“I’m not trying to pick a fight,” Kim argued.

“Then just take my word on it that I love you, just like I’m going to take your word on it that you’re not doing anything with Tatsu. She’s with Trin and you’re with me and that’s the end,” Shego declared. 

Kim decided to just go with Shego on this because the former thief did have a point. Tatsu was with Trin and according to Shin, the two were so in love it made him want to disembowel himself to not have to see it anymore. She and Shego were together, also in love. And Shin was, well, himself. So, that was the end.

The End. 

The next story in the series: Underdogs. Thanks for reading. I appreciate the support.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you wanna see more of my fanfics, they're all at FFN under [StarvingLunatic](https://www.fanfiction.net/~starvinglunatic). If you wanna see some original stories, you can look at FP under [StarvingLunatic](https://www.fictionpress.com/u/576301/).


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